617-355-6000 Each year, during the month of April, National Donate Life Month draws attention to those who have saved and healed lives through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation. Here are six simple ways to participate, celebrate and educate.
Become an organ donor.
- Register to be a donor at registerme.org/campaign/bch.
- Designate “organ donor” on your driver’s license.
- Visit transplantliving.org to learn more about becoming a living donor.
Emily and Isis: Gratitude in the form of a bean
Emily: When grief becomes a gift
Much of my life has been defined by loss. That loss has taken many forms. Sometimes, it hurdles in with horrific force and other times it sneaks up silently. But it shares one common thread: It has been out of my control.
So, imagine how I felt when I realized that I do have the ability to control destiny, to offer hope to someone else. …
Four moving forward, following living donation
Many children wait months — and sometimes years — for a transplant, but thanks to the generosity of living donors, some kids don’t have to wait. Read about the lives and futures of four children saved by living donation.
Helping Sloan live up to her name
Without Lt. Steve Tenney, 7-month-old Sloan wouldn’t be nursing, beginning to roll over on her own or meeting other milestones. “I did what anyone would have done,” says Tenney, who donated a piece of his liver when Sloan was only 5 months old.
“Sloan means ‘warrior,’” her mom, Sarah says. “We didn’t think she’d need to be a warrior at such a young age — but she showed us she is.” Read more about Sloan’s liver transplant.
Police save lives every day, just not this way — a liver for Sloan
A police officer’s job is all about action and reaction.
“We see something, react to it and, typically, it’s over quickly,” says Lt. Steve Tenney of the Keene, New Hampshire, Police Department.
But on the morning of Sept. 8, while Steve lay in a hospital bed at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, action/reaction wasn’t part of the equation. This time, there was time to think. Even so, the decision to donate a piece of his liver to save Sloan — a baby he’d never even met — was made without hesitation.
“I did what anyone would have done,” he says. …