ORLANDO, Fla. – A new center in Orlando opened its doors on Friday to help with organ donation. It’s the first of its kind in Florida and one of only 20 across the United States.
With an estimated 104,000 people in the country waiting for a transplant, doctors hope this new center will help give more people the gift of life.
“I was having trouble with my stomach and I was having trouble with my abdomen all of a sudden,” said transplant recipient Jamie Martin. “So I went from just having some stomach problems to all of a sudden I had a failing liver.”
That diagnosis put Martin on a lengthy waiting list. A year and a half later, Martin received his life-saving liver transplant at AdventHealth in 2019.
“Any chance we have that we can get people in earlier, the more people that can survive,” said Martin.
That’s exactly what is expected to happen now that a new donor center is opening in Central Florida. On Friday, AdventHealth and OurLegacy, which help coordinate transplants, opened the OurLegacy Center.
“It’s become an innovation in the organ donation community and the transplant community to not only increase the number of organs available for transplantation but also to help take care of the families of these donor heroes,” said Dr. Bobby Nibhanupudy, medical director for the AdventHealth Transplant Institute abdominal transplant program and OurLegacy.
Officials say the OurLegacy Center will operate like a mini-intensive care unit designed specifically for people who have been pronounced brain dead and whose organs are going to be transplanted. Organ donors will be brought to the facility from hospitals across a 10-county area with every donor gifting up to eight organs, as well as tissue that could help another 100 people.
“In units like these, throughout the country, they are learning that it is more possible for hearts and lungs in particular to be donated for transplant,” said Ginny McBride, OurLegacy’s executive director.
Officials say these donor care centers can generate a 20% increase in available organs. A team of 50 people will provide everything from surgical and critical care services to space for grieving families in order to meet with chaplains and family support coordinators.
“Organ donors are heroes. In my experience, families of these very generous organ heroes want to make sure that their loved one’s final act on earth is one of grace and generosity,” said McBride.
If you are interested in becoming an organ donor, you are encouraged to visit the Florida donor registry website.
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