NEW ORLEANS – On April 12, doctors, nurses, patients and their families came together to recognize Donate Life Month and National Blue and Green Day, which celebrates and recognizes the life-saving sacrifice of organ donation.
The Gift of Life Ceremony included real testimonials from patients and donor families. Taylor and Christian Bergeron spoke about their 3-month-old daughter, Elleanor, who was able to save the lives of others through organ donation. The Bergerons encouraged others to sign up for organ donation and thanked the Ochsner team members who helped their family. Paul Thibodaux, a lung recipient, also spoke to the crowd, urging everyone to consider donating life.
Following the ceremony, Paul Thibodaux and Christian Bergeron united to raise the Donate Life flag outside Ochsner Medical Center. The flag will serve as a reminder for everyone to consider organ donation. Following the flag-raising, butterflies were released in the garden to honor the sacrifice of those who have donated.
Currently, there are over 100,000 men, women and children waiting for organ transplants to save their lives— more than 2,000 of those people are in Louisiana. National Donate Life Month in April and National Blue and Green Day on April 12 are days to recognize the saving power of organ donation and call attention to the urgent need for more courageous donors.
Since its inception in 1984, Ochsner’s team of renowned physicians, surgeons, transplant nurses and support specialists have successfully performed more than 8,000 lifesaving liver, kidney, pancreas, heart and lung transplants in both adult and pediatric patients, and through our living donor program for living liver and living kidney transplants. Ochsner is the only pediatric heart transplant program and the only living liver donor transplant program in Louisiana.
To learn more about organ donation and the Ochsner Transplant Institute, visit ochsner.org/save9.
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