MANSFIELD — OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital honored organ, eye, and tissue donors with a ceremony and flag raising Wednesday during National Donate Life Month.
Hospital staff and representatives from Lifeline of Ohio gathered to celebrate the gift of life, and honor those who’ve saved others. Several speakers shared the importance of organ donation and encouraged others to register as organ donors.
“This flag flies in honor of the thousands of donor heroes and their families who said yes to donation,” said Faith Hilterbrand, director of external partner relations at Lifeline of Ohio.
“It flies in celebration of more than a million recipients who have received organ, eye, and tissue transplants, and it flies to give hope to the nearly 3,000 people across the state of Ohio and more than 100,000 people across the country who are still waiting for their life saving gifts,” she said.
According to Hilterbrand, 169 people in central, southeastern Ohio shared the gift of life through organ donation in 2024. Those gifts saved 608 lives. Hilterbrand said nine of those donors came from Mansfield Hospital, saving 26 lives.
Another speaker at the event was the father of an organ donor, who gave the gift of life in 2004. Tim Cooper shared his daughter, Shelby’s story.
At the age of 16, she was in a car crash where she was ultimately pronounced brain dead. She was able to save three lives through organ donation. Cooper says he was lucky enough to meet the recipient of Shelby’s kidney and pancreas years later. She was able to get married on the one-year anniversary of her organ transplant.
The event also took place on National Living Donor Day. OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital has encouraged mothers to give the gift of healing through placenta donation. Since its Placenta Donation Program began in September of 2023 through Lifeline of Ohio, mothers have donated 116 placentas. Those donations have helped create 2,900 healing and tissue grafts for those in need.
About Lifeline of Ohio: Founded in 1984, Lifeline of Ohio is an independent, non-profit organization that promotes and coordinates the donation of human organs and tissue for transplantation. Lifeline of Ohio serves 97 hospitals and facilities in 38 counties in Ohio and 2 in West Virginia and is designated as an organ procurement organization through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
About OhioHealth: Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable, healthcare outreach of the United Methodist Church. Serving its communities since 1891, OhioHealth is a family of 35,000 associates, physicians and volunteers, and a network of 16 hospitals, three joint-venture hospitals, 200+ ambulatory sites and other health services spanning a 50-county area. For more information, visit ohiohealth.com.