Organ Donor Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

April Is National Donate Life Month

On average, 11,000 people die each day who are considered medically suitable to donate and don’t. About every 10 minutes, someone new is added to the national transplant waiting list.

Celebrated in April, National Donate Life Month encourages organ donation awareness.

Mon Health System and the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) will host ceremonial flag raising services across the region to support organ donation and honor organ donors and their families.

Michelle Stanton, director of quality at Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital, said an organ donor can save as many as eight lives.

“Our physicians, our nurses and staff, realize the positive impact that organ donation can have on both recipients as well as donor families,” Stanton said. “And participating as an organ donor is one of the greatest gifts a person could potentially give to a patient on a transplant waiting list.”

On average, 11,000 people die each day who are considered medically suitable to donate and don’t. About every 10 minutes, someone new is added to the national transplant waiting list.

According to Stanton, organs that can be donated include kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs, pancreas and small intestines. She also noted the importance of tissue donation like heart valves.

“You know, there are living donors also,” Stanton said. “We know folks who have graciously given a kidney to somebody who’s been in need. Living donors can give kidneys or portions of their liver, lungs or small intestine or pancreas to someone in need.”

Hospitals across the U.S. fly the “Donate Life” flag in April to signal their support of donation, to serve as a display of unity, remembrance, and hope, and to honor those touched by donation and transplantation.

To learn more about becoming an organ donor, visit core.org.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

CORE Celebrates Lives Saved And Healed In 2022

The Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) announced a fourth consecutive year of record-breaking donations in 2022.

CORE saw a 23 percent increase in organ transplants last year with 858 life-saving transplants made possible by 334 organ donors. Another record was set with a 50 percent increase of heart transplants in the region.

Cheryl King is CORE’s Community Outreach Coordinator. She said organ donation is used to save lives, as well as to heal lives.

“A lot of people when they think about CORE and about organ donation, they don’t realize that there is also tissue and cornea donation. So someone may not need a heart, but they may need corneas they may need to be able to see,” King said. “When they think of organ donation, they don’t think about tissue. But tissue can be skin, it can be bone, it can be heart valves, and all of these things can heal people’s lives. I mean, it can save them, but it can also heal them.”

Even after a year filled with successful transplants, the need for donors remains urgent with a new person added to the transplant list every 10 minutes and nearly 500 people waiting for a life-saving transplant in the state. However, CORE reports only a third of West Virginians are registered as organ donors.

Some hesitate to become an organ donor for personal or religious reasons, while others might be operating under misconceptions about the process.

“The biggest misconception is people think that if they are in a car wreck, or have a heart attack, and go to the hospital, that the people at the hospital, the medical staff will not help them, because if they see that they are an organ donor, then they are not going to want to save their lives because they’re going to want their organs to be recovered, and that is not the truth at all,” King said.

Emergency personnel are trained to help the patient that is in front of them and to do everything in their power to save that life.

“If you go into the hospital, in an emergency situation, in any situation, they’re going to try to save your life,” King said. “They’re not thinking about saving someone else’s life first.”

One person can save the lives of eight by donating organs and heal the lives of 75 through tissue donation. To register today, visit CORE.org/register.

Gov. Justice Encourages West Virginians To Register As An Organ Donor

Justice, along with the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE), and the organization Donate Life West Virginia say they hope the proclamation will encourage more people to register to become an organ donor.

In 2019, West Virginia became one of the first states to make it possible to register as an organ donor on hunting or fishing license applications. So far, more than 33,000 people in the state have registered through that option. But numbers remain low compared to the rest of the country. According to a news release from The Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), 35 percent of West Virginians are registered organ donors. The national average is about 50 percent.

More than 500 West Virginians are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. Experts say that one donor can save up to eight lives.

There are two transplant centers in the state — WVU Medicine Ruby Memorial in Morgantown and CAMC in Charleston.

World War II Veteran From W.Va. Becomes Oldest Organ Donor

A World War II veteran who passed away recently has proven that it’s possible to keep helping others by giving the gift of life and becoming the oldest recorded organ donor in United States history.

Cecil F. Lockhart of Welch was 95 years old when he passed away May 4 after a short illness. He served his country during World War II and contributed to his community by mining coal for more than 50 years, and his desire to serve others continued when his donated liver aided a 62-year-old woman.

The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) announced Monday that Lockhart’s decision to help others after death made him the oldest recorded organ donor in United States history. This distinction was confirmed by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

Lockhart’s family said he was moved to become an organ donor following the death of his son, Stanley, in 2010, after which Stanley healed the lives of 75 people through tissue donation and restored sight to two others through cornea donation. Cecil Lockhart is survived by Helen Cline Lockhart, his wife of 75 years, his daughter, Sharon White, and his son, Brian Lockhart, as well as three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Bill Davis, who is Sharon White’s husband, said that Lockhart served in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, and was “on the ground” during the fighting in the Philippines.

Davis told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that his father-in-law would be “ecstatic” to know that his decision to become an organ donor has helped a person already.

“Cecil was a very caring and giving man,” Davis recalled.

Basically, Lockhart thought that since he would not need his body after passing away, his organs could go on to help people in need. Davis said that he’s an organ donor, too, and it’s something the family is urging other people to consider. Davis brought up the subject during Lockhart’s funeral.

“I asked people to think about becoming an organ donor in his honor and his memory,” Davis stated. “One of the things is you can do good things with your life even after your life is completed.”

Lockhart’s daughter also spoke about her father’s desire to help others.

“He was a generous person when he was alive, and we are filled with pride and hope knowing that, even after a long, happy life, he is able to continue that legacy of generosity,” Sharon White said. “When my brother was a donor after he passed away a few years ago, it helped my dad to heal. And today, knowing his life is continuing through others really is helping us through our grief, too.”

Davis said that Lockhart was the oldest organ donor on record in the United States and as far as the family knew, the oldest internal organ donor in the world. Besides his liver, patches of his skin will be used to help burn victims and repair cleft palates in children. Even if internal organs are not acceptable, people can still donate skin, body fluid, the corneas of their eyes and other organs, he added.

“The liver can last for a long time and Cecil was in good health at 95,” Davis stated. “He didn’t drink and he didn’t smoke, and he ate the things he should eat and his liver was in very good condition from what the surgeons told me.

One surgeon told Davis that the 62-year-old woman could live to become 95, too.

We’re talking about a functioning adult human being, and that’s just amazing to me,” he said.

Both CORE representatives and Lockhart’s family pointed out there is no age limit for becoming an organ donor.

“There’s no reason not to be an organ donor, and he proved that no matter how old you are, you can still be a donor,” Davis stated.

More than 30 percent of all deceased organ donors in the United States since 1988 have been age 50 or older, according to UNOS data. And it’s a trend that’s rising.

So far in 2021, 39 percent of all U.S. deceased organ donors have been age 50 or older, according to UNOS. That is up more than 8 percent from just 20 years ago. Seven percent of deceased organ donors since 1988 have been age 65 or older. In the last 20 years, 17 people over age 90 have died and become organ donors in the United States, with the first instance occurring in 2001.

“It’s really not something that just for the young,” said Katelynn Metz, a CORE media representative.

Donations like the one Lockhart made go on help thousands of people.

“CORE is incredibly proud to have been able to make this historic organ donation possible,” said Susan Stuart, CORE president and CEO. “This landmark in the field of transplantation is just another example of CORE’s pioneering legacy and commitment to innovation, which, over the last 40 years, has given 6,000 people in the United States the opportunity to save more than 15,000 others as organ donors.”

The record-breaking donation in West Virginia took place during Older Americans Month, which is observed in the United States every May to acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons to the country. UNOS Chief Medical Officer David Klassen said that Cecil Lockhart’s contribution is indeed significant – and one that each and every American has the power to achieve as well by registering as a donor.

“Too often, people mistakenly believe there is an age limit associated with being an organ donor,” said Klassen. “The truth is, no one is ever too old or too young to give the gift of life. Every potential donor is evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the time of their death to determine which organs and tissue are suitable for donation. Cecil’s generous and historic gift is a perfect example of that.”

Lockhart served his country during World War II and continued to serve it by mining the coal needed for America’s industry and power generation, Davis said. He kept helping other people after he passed away, and now his family is urging other people to follow his example.

“I look at it this way,” he added. “Jesus told us ‘What you do for the least of these, you do for Me’ and if I give an organ – a piece of skin, an eye cornea – for another human being, I’m doing what He told us to do.”

“There is a reason that group of people was called ‘The Greatest Generation,’” Davis concluded. “Because he gave and he gave and he gave, and now it’s our turn.”

Elkins fire victim's organs gave life to three others

The father of one of four children killed in a West Virginia house fire says his daughter’s donated organs are keeping three transplant patients alive, so she continues to bring joy to other families.

     Dmitriy Bolgar said during a Monday night vigil in Elkins that 11-year-old Katie Bolgar’s liver went to a 1-year-old girl. Her kidneys went to two other people. All are doing well.

     Bolgar is from northern Virginia.

     Hundreds paid their respects to Katie Bolgar, 29-year-old Alan Chamberlain and his three children, 4-year-old Isabella Chamberlain and 2-year-old twins Brianna and Alanna Chamberlain. They died in the Oct. 28 fire in Elkins.

     The children’s mother and uncle – 34-year-old Jennifer Chamberlain and her brother, Jeff Hyde – remain at the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh.