Highland District Hospital, LifeCenter raise awareness for organ donation

Highland District Hospital representatives met with LifeCenter staff and transplant patients and families Monday afternoon at the hospital to raise awareness for organ donation and to celebrate the Transplant Games of America, which will be held in Ohio this year.

Highland District Hospital administrators and home health and nursing staff celebrated the visit of the Transplant Games of America torch to the hospital, carried by Don Melillo, who received a liver transplant in October 2012. Melillo was accompanied by fellow organ donation advocate Vicki Jackson, whose son, Brandon, saved four lives as an organ donor.

Both Melillo and Jackson serve as advocates for LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, which serves Highland County as “one of four Ohio organ procurement organizations (OPO) that are part of a national network of nonprofit organizations that facilitate the donation of organs, tissues and eyes from the donor hospitals to the transplant centers,” according to LifeCenter.

LifeCenter serves 16 counties throughout Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, including Adams, Brown, Butler, Clinton, Clermont, Hamilton, Highland and Warren counties in Ohio, according to their website.

“The 16-county service area has 33 hospitals that LifeCenter works in partnership with to facilitate donation and has a total population of about 2 million people,” LifeCenter said.

Along with LifeCenter staff, Cincinnati Eye Bank executive director Beth Binnion also attended the event. According to their website, the Cincinnati Eye Bank is “a not-for-profit recovery organization which was established in 1956 to provide donor eyes for corneal transplantation, ophthalmic research,and for the teaching of ocular surgery to resident eye physicians at the University of Cincinnati.”

Local heart transplant recipient David Waits was unable to attend the event due to health reasons. As previously reported in The Highland County Press, Waits, 50, of Hillsboro, received a heart transplant in February at the University of Cincinnati (UC) Medical Center.

The Transplant Games of America (TGA) Torch is in the Cincinnati area during March 22-April 1, according to LifeCenter.

“As the TGA torch travels all over the state of Ohio, it will celebrate and promote the message of organ and tissue donation as well as the spirit of the Games,” LifeCenter said in a press release prior to the event.

The 2016 Donate Life Transplant Games of America (TGA), held June 10-15 in Cleveland, is a multi-sport festival event for individuals who have undergone life-saving transplant surgeries, LifeCenter said.

“TGA is a celebration of life built around Olympic-style competitions,” according to LifeCenter. “The Transplant Games of America are held every two years in a different US city to help raise awareness on a national stage about the urgent need for organ, eye and tissue donation to celebrate the success of transplantation and to honor donors, both living and deceased.

“Competition events are open to living donors, organ transplant recipients, bone marrow recipients and a limited number of corneal and tissue transplant recipients. More than an athletic event, the Transplant Games of America highlight the critical importance of organ, eye and tissue donation while celebrating the lives of organ donors and recipients and increasing donor registration numbers.

“Over 6,000 registrants will travel to Cleveland to participate in the 2016 TGA, representing all 50 states and several different countries. Registrants also represent all ages, with both adult and children event categories.”

LifeCenter representatives also met with Hillsboro and Wilmington Bureau of Motor Vehicles staff on Monday, as well as staff members at Clinton Memorial Hospital.

For more information about TGA’s Team Ohio, visit www.teamohio.org or facebook.com/TeamOhio4Life. To learn more about LifeCenter and their services, visit www.lifepassiton.org.