10 lives saved by organ donations made at both hospitals
DAVENPORT, Fla. — AdventHealth Heart of Florida in Davenport and AdventHealth Lake Wales have earned national recognition for their efforts to increase organ, eye and tissue donor registrations across the state of Florida through the DoNation Campaign.
According to LifeLink of Florida, ten lives were saved by organ donors at the two hospitals in 2024. The organization said AdventHealth Heart of Florida had three donors who saved five lives and AdventHealth Lake Wales had two donors save five lives. The hospitals also had a combined nine tissue donors last year. LifeLink said each tissue donor has the ability to impact up to 75 lives with the life enhancing tissue grafts they donate.
DoNation engages workplaces of all sizes and industries to highlight the importance in the lifesaving and life-giving mission of organ and tissue donation and transplantation. AdventHealth Heart of Florida and AdventHealth Lake Wales, in partnership with the LifeLink of Florida, the local organ and tissue recovery program, and Donate Life Florida, the state organ and tissue donor registry, earned Gold recognition for conducting organ donation education and donor registration activities between October 2023 and September 2024.
During the 2023-2024 campaign cycle, AdventHealth Heart of Florida and AdventHealth Lake Wales were two of 58 participating hospital partners within the LifeLink service area. Through flag raisings, ceremonial honor walks, donor registration tabling events, social media, Donate Life spirit week activities, community events, media and more, new donor registrations were added to the Donate Life Florida state donor registry. This registry is currently the third largest in the country with over 11 million registered donors.
“These donors are absolute heroes. Donating an organ is the greatest gift one person can give another as you are providing hope and helping someone live longer; potentially giving a family more precious time with their loved one,” said AdventHealth Polk Market President Tim Clark. “We are very honored to receive this prestigious designation. It shows just how committed AdventHealth and our hospital teams are to bringing awareness to the tremendous need for organ donations in Florida and nationwide.”
Nationally, over 104,000 individuals are waiting for a lifesaving transplant and more than 5,000 of those individuals live in Florida. Unfortunately, every day in the United States 17 people pass away because an organ was not available in time to save their lives, and every eight minutes, another person is added to the national organ transplant waiting list. This ongoing need reaffirms the critical and growing need for more registered organ, eye, and tissue donors.
Anyone, regardless of their age or health can make their decision to become a registered organ and tissue donor when obtaining a driver license or by going to www.DonateLifeFlorida.org. For more information about the DoNation Campaign, visit www.organdonor.gov/professionals/workplace. For more information about AdventHealth, go to www.adventhealth.com.
— provided by AdventHealth
(photo courtesy: AdventHealth)
(photo courtesy: AdventHealth)