Community Corner
Southampton Hospital Encourages Community to 'Donate Life'
Individuals impacted by organ donation share their personal stories with Southampton Hospital medical students.
Southampton Hospital has partnered with the New York Organ Donor Network this April, which is Donate Life Month, to motivate locals to join the organ donor registry.
“During our lives we all have an opportunity to do good work and help others. Organ donation allows us to continue our good work beyond our lives,” Southampton Hospital President and CEO Robert Chaloner said in a statement. “We should all consider organ donation as a way to help the many thousands of people who live every day in need.”
To that end, East End residents Gwen and Frank Dalene and Anne Gianchetta shared their personal stories of the benefits of organ donation during a NY Organ Donor Network presentation to Southampton Hospital medical students April 18.
"Just one organ donor alone can save up to eight lives," New York Organ Donor Network President and CEO Helen Irving said. "That same person can save or improve up to 50 lives through tissue and eye donation. That’s why we appeal to New Yorkers to register as organ donors today.”
According to a hospital statement, in New York State, nearly 10,000 people are waiting for organ transplants to save their lives, but only 20 percent of individuals age 18 and over have joined the donor registry — compared to an average of 45 percent across the United States.
Register to be an organ donor at SaveLivesNewYork.org.
PICTURED: Shawn P. Cannon, DO, FACOI, director of medical education; Frank Dalene; Daniel Van Arsdale, DO, administrative director of medical education and director of family medicine program; Gwen Dalene; Anne Gianchetta; and Karen Cummings, public and professional education specialist, NY Organ Donor Network.
