Donor
Network Asks Donor Families and Recipients to Submit True Stories
For Its 25th Anniversary - March 5, 2003
In conjunction with its 25th anniversary celebration
in 2003, the New York Organ Donor Network is searching
for New Yorkers who became organ and tissue donor families or
transplant recipients from 1978 to the present. Donor families,
transplant recipients, as well as current and former transplant
center employees will be included in a variety of programs during
the Donor Network's anniversary, and their stories will be featured
on the new Organ Donor Network Web site.
"We have found that the stories of organ and tissue donor families
and transplant recipients are the most compelling arguments
for donation and donor registration," says Elaine Berg,
President and CEO of the New York Organ Donor Network, who notes
that all nine New York metro area transplant centers that have
worked with the Donor Network will be included in the anniversary
celebration. "The living proof that transplantation is a successful
cure for end stage organ failure is why we are actively seeking
donor families, and transplant recipients who are healthy after
many years, to help us celebrate the gift of life during our
25th anniversary."
According to Ms. Berg, there are more than 80,000 Americans
on the national organ waiting list, 6,800 of whom are in the
New York metropolitan area. Across the U.S., 17 men, women and
children of all races and ethnic backgrounds die every day for
lack of a donated organ. A new name is added to the list every
13 minutes. Tens of thousands of Americans also need life-saving
or life-improving tissue transplantation.
Program highlights for the 25th Anniversary include
National Donate Life Month in April; National Donor Sabbath
in November; the Donor Network's "Workplace Partnership For
Life" program; and the Donor Network Gala at the Waldorf-Astoria
on November 13. The Gala will raise funds for public education
about organ and tissue donation.
The New York Organ Donor Network seeks recipients who received
organs at any of the following transplant centers: Columbia
Presbyterian Center of New York/Presbyterian Hospital; Montefiore
Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine; New York
University Medical Center; St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center;
SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn; The Mount Sinai Medical
Center; New York Weill Cornell Center of New York Presbyterian
Hospital; Westchester Medical Center; and University Hospital
and Medical Center at Stony Brook.
Family and friends of donors and recipients should briefly explain
their experiences in a letter, and send it by mail to: New York
Organ Donor Network, Attention: Martin Woolf, 475 Riverside
Drive, Suite 1244, New York, NY 10015; or via email to mwoolf@nyodn.org.
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