Bayhealth is joining with the Delaware Healthcare Association, the Gift of Life, and other Delaware hospitals in supporting the national Workplace Partnership for Life (WPFL) hospital campaign which encourages more people to become organ donors.
Bayhealth Diagnostic Imaging Manager and Gift of Life supporter Peter Calabrese notes that his late wife Lois Calabrese was able to help many people through her organ donations.
“Lois and I had decided many years ago that we would be organ donors. Lois was always the type to give and that didn’t stop when she passed,” he said.
Peter Calabrese says his wife suffered a fatal horseback riding accident in August of 2006. Lois Calabrese’s lungs were used to save the life of a New Jersey man who was suffering from a congenital lung disease. Her kidneys were used to save the life of two patients. Her liver was utilized for cancer research. Her pancreas was donated to Johns Hopkins University Hospital to manufacture insulin producing Islet of Langerhans cells for diabetes patients.
“One organ donor can help save the lives of up to 50 people. Lois and others like her have given many people a second chance at life,” said Peter Calabrese.
He notes that, in Delaware, there are approximately 600 people awaiting potentially lifesaving organ transplants. You can designate yourself as an organ donor when you renew your driver’s license at the Division of Motor Vehicle. Or you can register, by going to www.donatelife.net.