The Tree of Life, displayed in the Jennie Sealy Hospital lobby, stands as a lasting tribute to transplant recipients and to deceased and living donors who have given the gift of life through organ donation.
Each year, the University of Texas Medical Branch partners with the Southwest Transplant Alliance to host an annual Donate Life event. STA is the Dallas-based nonprofit organ procurement organization responsible for donor procurements at UTMB’s Galveston and League City campuses.
Organ transplantation at UTMB’s Texas Transplant Center was started at UTMB more than 50 years ago and has grown into the Texas Transplant Center at UTMB with 3,400 patients transplanted since the program began.
Transplantation is considered one of the most remarkable success stories in the history of medicine, giving hope to thousands of people with organ failure and providing many others with active and renewed lives.
The transplant center at UTMB works to fill the gap between supply and demand for viable organs from donors both living and deceased.
According to statistics provided by STA, there are more than 100,000 men, women and children on the national transplant waiting list—10,000 in Texas—with another person added every nine minutes. Seventeen people die each day waiting for an organ transplant, according to those statistics.
The good news is that every organ donor can help save eight lives and improve the lives of more than 75 other patients through transplantation of tissue and corneas.
But, STA reports, only three in 1,000 individuals die in a manner compatible with organ donation, and the organs of many of those potential donors never make it to transplantation, according to STA representative Gina Fullen. Many people haven't signed up to be a donor. Some die unexpectedly and never have the chance, while others just never get around to it or are too nervous about the notion to make the commitment.
In other cases, Fullen said, people who do register as donors often don't specifically let family members know about their wishes. Whereas organ donation is a legally binding document, the family is faced with an uncomfortable and often heartbreaking situation.
UTMB Associate Chief Nursing Officer Jason Sheaffer helped coordinate the Donate Life event and said the celebration reminded him why he does what he does.
“At UTMB we are thrilled to recognize and celebrate our donors and their gifts," Sheaffer said. "The Tree of Life celebration is a very special and poignant moment that we have been proud to produce the last two years and are looking forward to celebrating for many more.
"Organ donation represents perhaps the most important decision a person facing sudden unexpected end of life can make," he added, "as it potentially creates joy out of sorrow and hope from hopelessness."
In the Health System Heartbeat newsletter: Read about the UTMB transplant coordinator who went from caregiver to lifesaver by donating a kidney to a UTMB retiree.