Currently, more than 113,000 people nationwide and 1,300 people in Indiana are awaiting life-changing organ and tissue transplants. April’s Donate Life Month is a special time to honor those donors and their families that said yes to donation.
Franciscan Health, VisionFirst and Indiana Donor Network are working together to honor donors and recipients during this month-long celebration. Organ, eye, tissue and cord blood donors and recipients will be recognized in a National Donate Life Month Flag Raising Ceremony at Franciscan Health Michigan City at 8:30 AM, Tuesday, April 30.  This celebration will provide opportunity for members of the media to hear from local people whose lives have been touched by organ, tissue and cornea donation.
One of the presenters will be Michigan City resident Doris Mitchell, who received liver transplants in 2005 and 2010. Her second transplant was from a 4-year-old girl. Mitchell learned from the donor’s mother that the girl was listening to her mother’s friend talking about receiving a donated kidney and said that she wanted to be a donor, not knowing that two weeks later, an accident would take her life.
Mitchell said she once had misconceptions about being an organ donor, and she wants to educate others who might be reluctant to let them know that being a donor is nothing to fear. She also wants “to let the donor families know how much I appreciate what they do, for being so selfless.”
Light refreshments will be served at the celebration, and a donor registration drive will be at the hospital cafeteria from 11AM to 1PM. Franciscan Health Michigan City is at 3500 Franciscan Way, on the northwest corner of Interstate 94 and U.S. 421.
Learn more about organ donation and register to be a donor in Indiana at DonateLifeIndiana.org, visionfirst.org or indianadonornetwork.org. Donors can also register at any Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles facility.