Flag raising at ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah, in honor of National Donate Life Month, April 10, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
NEENAH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Health care officials in the Fox Valley are recognizing National Donate Life Month.
In a ceremony Wednesday, staff from ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah gathered for the annual raising of their Donate Life flag. It was raised at 1:08 p.m., signifying that 1 donor can save 8 lives.
Hospital systems raise these flags every year to honor donors and their families, recognize recipients of life-saving organs and memorialize those patients who didn’t receive an organ gift in time.
A moment of silence, lasting for 1 minute and 3 seconds, was also observed for the more than 103,000 patients currently on the list for an organ transplant. Sue Broeren, coordinator of the Organ, Tissue and Eye Donation program at ThedaCare-Neenah, said about 1,500 of those patients reside in Wisconsin.
She added that 12 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving organ.
Broeren said ThedaCare’s Donate Life flag is a way to increase awareness about the importance of organ donation and to spur new donors signing up on the registry.
“When you die, you don’t need those organs, so why not share them with other people so that they can have a second chance at life?” said Broeren said.
Sarah Forster, an employee of ThedaCare-Neenah, said when her 12-year-old son Nick died, donating his organs was a no-brainer.
“The biggest excitement for me was that Nick’s heart would beat again, even if it wasn’t in him,” Forster said. “Nick donated four organs and he donated his corneas, so four people got a chance at a healthier life. And he restored sight to two people in Mexico, we found out. Two young men who were blind.”
Broeren said it’s stories like Sarah’s that show how organ donation can make such an immense impact in so many ways.
“When we have tragedies that we can’t find any intervention to fix, and these families are grieving, it’s nice to give them another option. Their loved one can live on in other people,” Broeren. “It’s almost like when you give them that option, you see a sense of peace come upon the families because there is something that can be done, versus just quitting and not doing anything.”
You can register to be an organ/tissue donor when you renew your driver’s license or ID card at the DMV, or by visiting the Wisconsin Donor Registry website.
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