You hear constantly about people who need transplants, but until you’ve been there and you’ve seen the process, the heartache and all the good that can come from it, you just can’t know what it’s like – Jessica Smith
SALT LAKE CITY — Volunteers with Intermountain Donor Services commemorated National Donate Life month on Friday by planting 123 flowers in the gardens surrounding the Celebration of Life Donor Monument at Library Square.
At a ratio of 1 to 1,000, the 123 flowers represent the 123,000 Americans waiting on vital transplants of organs, eyes or tissues.
Friday’s event included short addresses from Philip Mendoza, a Vietnam veteran waiting for a heart transplant, and Deb Coffey, who donated her late husband’s organs in 2013.
“We wanted to showcase the faces of those on waiting lists and of the families that have helped save lives by saying yes,” said Alex McDonald, public education director for Intermountain Donor Services.
Many of Friday’s volunteers were transplant recipients, McDonald said, and many more are still waiting. Mendoza has been on the list for a heart transplant for more than a year.
“It’s frustrating waiting, but what can I say? It’s a second chance,” he said.
Families of donors and recipients alike turned out in large numbers.
“Donor families have given so much, and they’re some of our best volunteers, too," McDonald said. "They just keep giving. Of course they would take their loved one back in a heartbeat, but since there’s nothing they can do to change that, to know that someone else is alive and doing well often means a lot.”
Mother-toddler gardening team Jessica and Adison Smith planted their flowers in honor of Jessica’s father, who joined the waiting list for a liver transplant in December 2014. In Utah, the average waiting time for a liver can run from 24 to 36 months.
“We’re just at the beginning of our journey, which seems like it’s been an eternity already,” Jessica Smith said.
Smith said the experience has opened up an entirely new world to her family.
“You hear constantly about people who need transplants, but until you’ve been there and you’ve seen the process, the heartache and all the good that can come from it, you just can’t know what it’s like,” she said. “It’s a very eye-opening experience.”
Smith said her volunteer work was not just for her father, but for each of the 5,000 donors listed on the Celebration of Life monument.
“Whether or not they have donated to our family, there are so many people who have graciously given that gift of life and that second chance,” she said. “We’re here to support that.”
Like Smith, McDonald encouraged all Utahns to consider organ donation. He said parents should discuss donation with children early, perhaps over dinner or after watching the news.
“Have this conversation while you’re at the dinner table,” he advised. “The last place you should be having conversations about donation is in the (hospital) when your world has just been turned upside down, stress levels are running high and nobody knows quite what’s going on.”
Unregistered Utahns can join the organ donor registry at www.yesutah.org.
Email: aoligschlaeger@deseretnews.com, Twitter: allisonoctober