CHARLESTON, W.Va — Organ donor families and recipients shared their stories and inspired others to help save a life at Charleston Area Medical Center Tuesday.
The event, recognizing April as National Donate Life Month, not only included heart-warming stories from people on how organ donation impacted them, but also honored the many who have given organs by having their names be added to the Tree of Life wall in the hospital lobby.
CAMC partnered with The Center for Organ Recovery and Education to host the ceremony in hopes to encourage more people to consider donating their organs, tissue and cornea to the nearly 500 people currently waiting for transplants in West Virginia alone.
CORE Community Outreach Coordinator, Cheryl King said despite some of the misconceptions behind being an organ donor, CORE wants donors to know that their life-saving contributions do not go unnoticed.
“A lot of times people are not swayed to become an organ donor unless they know someone in their family or they hear a personal story, and at CORE, we always want the donor families to know that they are not forgotten, they are our heroes,” said King.
Paul Ronk is one of the family members of an organ donor who spoke at Tuesday’s event. His son, Jacob Ronk had died at CAMC 6 years ago at 22-years-old.
After being registered as an organ donor on his license, Jacob gave his heart, liver, both of his kidneys, and both of his eyes to people who needed them.
Ronk said all of the recipients have been very grateful for the donations. The 62-year-old man who had received Jacob’s heart 6 years ago gave Ronk and his family a teddy bear with the recorded heartbeat of his son inside of it, which Ronk played at Tuesday’s event.
Ronk said his son would have been equally as grateful to know how many people he was able to give a second chance at life to.
“My son was always a giving person and very sensitive, so it’s just neat to know this has created a special giving that allows life to continue on,” said Ronk.
Ronk said the heart and the liver recipient especially would not have lived much longer without his son’s donations. He said the liver recipient was told on a Friday that if they didn’t find a new liver by that Monday it would be too late. Ronk said the recipient was able to receive his son’s liver on that Sunday.
Ronk said by his son’s contributions, it has made him and his family realize the true impact of what it means to be an organ donor.
“It has made us be more aware of the importance of it, especially when you hear that 100,000 people out there are waiting for an organ, and I don’t think people realize how important it is for them to donate their organ,” he said.
Ronk said he plans to tell his son’s story whenever he can to encourage everyone to give an organ and help save lives.
King was one of the many at the event touched by Ronk’s story and the heartbeat recording of his son that he played. She said though his story encourages people in a sentimental way, it also depicts the reality behind the impact of organ donation.
“It just kind of makes it that much more real when you hear that, and that’s what we want people to realize, to realize that it is real and it does happen, and it does happen to everybody, you know, there’s no respect or persons when it comes to someone who may need a donation,” King said.
King said it was the second year of adding names to the donor tree of life. She also said throughout the whole month CORE has been visiting hospitals around the state, raising the Donate Life flag and attempting to raise more awareness about what it means to be an organ donor.
King encourages people to register as an organ donor by changing the status on their drivers license, signing up as one on their hunting and fishing license, or going to CORE’s website to register there.