Intermountain Donor Services on Thursday celebrated more than 3,700 lives saved during a 20th anniversary luncheon at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center.
Special guests Ranell Burnham and Jim Garshow, both of Idaho Falls, were featured speakers. In 1987, Burnham worked at an Idaho restaurant that Garshow and his friends like to frequent. They knew each other, but not particularly well — that changed when Burnham's husband died and she agreed to donate his organs. Garshow received his heart in a lifesaving transplant, and now the two of them team up to speak publicly about the importance of organ donation.
IDS is the official organ and tissue procurement organization for Utah and southern Idaho. Since 1988, when it began operating as Intermountain Organ Recovery Services, there have been 1,133 organ donor families and more than 5,000 tissue donor families in Utah — folks who, faced with a tragedy, decided to donate a loved one's organs and tissues. Those donations have given life to 3,716 organ recipients and have enhanced the lives of well over 30,000 tissue recipients, according to IDS.
The name was changed to Intermountain Donor Services in January 2001.