Above: HealthAlliance Security Manager Martin Duffy raises a “Donate Life” flag in front of the HealthAlliance Hospital: Broadway Campus Wednesday. The flag, whose inscription also says “Donation Saves Lives,” will fly in front of the hospital for a week before being given to the organ donor’s family.
KINGSTON, Feb. 18, 2015 -- A special flag is flying in front of Kingston’s HealthAlliance Hospital: Broadway Campus to honor a patient who donated her kidneys after death.
The donation was the first by a HealthAlliance Hospital patient since 2008. The kidneys were used in kidney-disease research.
The “Donate Life” flag, raised Wednesday, will fly beneath the American flag in front of the hospital for a week.
Afterward, the flag will be lowered, ceremonially folded and then given to the organ donor’s family.
“This is a wonderful way of honoring a woman who donated her kidneys and extending that honor to her family,” said Krista Usko, a HealthAlliance registered nurse who was involved in the patient’s care.
Shaina Kaye, a hospital and community services specialist at Albany’s Center for Donation and Transplant, said: “Organs for research are very important. They help researchers make powerful strides in the fight against kidney disease, saving and improving the lives of others.”
In Ulster County, 29.2 percent of all adults age 18 or older have joined the state Donate Life Registry, says the New York Alliance for Donation, an advocacy group. The state average is 23.6 percent.
New York ranks at No. 50 nationally, with the lowest percentage of organ donors in the nation, the alliance says.
Locally, about 850 people are listed by Westchester Medical Center and Albany Medical Center as waiting for a donated organ so they can have a lifesaving transplant, figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicate.
Nearly 10,500 people are on waiting lists for organ transplants statewide and more than 124,000 are on the federal government’s national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network list. On average, a person joins a New York waiting list every 2 1/2 hours and the national list every 10 minutes.
“The burden is too great and there are too many people who simply do not live long enough to receive their second chance at life,” Kaye said.
“On average, one person dies every 13 hours in New York state waiting for an organ transplant,” she said.
A single donor can save as many as eight lives by donating the heart, liver (which can be split in two), lungs (which can go to two different people but are often transplanted together), kidneys (which often go to two different people), intestines and pancreas.
Signing up to be an organ donor is free and easy.
With the state Department of Motor Vehicles, just check off the donor box on your driver’s license application or renewal form, or when applying for or renewing a non-driver identification card.
You can also visit the nyhealth.gov/donatelife website to enroll online or to download a printable paper form you can mail.
In addition, you can enroll at your local board of elections office.
For more information, call the state Organ and Tissue Donor Registry at 866-NYDONOR (866-693-6667).
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About the Center for Donation and Transplant
The Center for Donation and Transplant is a nonprofit organ-procurement organization that coordinates the recovery of donated organs and tissues at more than 40 hospitals throughout western Vermont and northeastern New York state. While one of the organization’s primary focuses is on organ procurement and allocation, CDT also places a particular importance on community education and public relations to help raise awareness of the New York state Donate Life Registry and highlight the need for increased registry in New York state. Above all, the organization works to ensure to offer hope and healing for families in times of great tragedy by opening up the option to donate in a manner that is appropriate and sensitive.
About HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley®
HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley® is the alignment of HealthAlliance Hospital: Mary’s Avenue Campus and Broadway Campus, as well as Margaretville Hospital, Mountainside Residential Care Center and Woodland Pond at New Paltz. As the parent organization with a unified governance structure, the goal of HealthAlliance is to strengthen the quality of care and bring forward enhanced technology to serve the present and future healthcare needs in the Hudson Valley. HealthAlliance and its affiliate facilities are committed to providing compassionate, patient-centered care and to ensuring patient safety, privacy and dignity to all. For further information about HealthAlliance, visit our website at www.hahv.org.