RICHLAND, Wash. -- Kadlec Regional Medical Center held a flag raising ceremony to mark the beginning of Organ Donation Awareness month.
The organ donation flag above Kadlec will fly throughout the month of April to help raise awareness about the life saving gift of organ donation.
According to Dr. Brag with Kadlec he says there's two types of organ donations: a deceased organ donation when a patient passes away and they registered to donate their organs and a living organ donor. Dr. Brag said both types have a big impact.
“Diseased organ donors often can save up to eight lives, and more as in, they can donate their kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, and their lungs.” Dr. Brag said, “A living donor usually means there's someone you know, or your blood relation, so on and so forth. The most common we see is kidneys and liver.”
Organ donors are vital in helping save patients' lives, Dr.Brag said.
“If you look at the current numbers, there are more than 100,000 patients waiting for an organ. Not everyone gets an organ and many of them die from the disease process itself. So that's why it's important to have organ donors as well to kinda help those who are in need,”Dr.Brag said.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to register to be a donor is through your license Dr. Brag said.
At the ceremony Blanca Zepeda spoke on how her son was a registered organ donor. In 2022 her son Oscar was involved in a car accident that led to his passing. Through him being a donor he was able to help save four people's lives through his gift of organ donation. It's been hard without her son but through him being a donor she’s learned a lot from him Zepeda said.
Blanca Zepeda mother of a donor.
“Now that he's not here it’s been hard but I stay strong because I know it was his decision he left me a lot of things to learn from and he made that decision to save other people he left it written for me in a card that he had left.” Zepeda said.
In that card he left he had this written Zepeda said.
“Sometimes the person who has nothing is the person who gives the most and that’s a gift that doesn't have a price,” Zepeda said.
Dr.Brag highlighted that this is something he wants the public to know about being a donor.
“You know in the community they might think you know if you're an organ donor you might get less care but that’s not the case, everything we do at that time is to save the patient's lives,” Dr.Brag said.
Last year the United Organ Registry recorded about 23,000 donors and they were able to save roughly about 40,000 lives Dr.Brag said.
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