This Pennsylvania Health System Goes Blue and Green Each April. Here’s Why.
Every organ donor can save eight lives and enhance more than 75, according to the federal government. However, with more than 103,000 men, women and children on the national transplant waiting list, even the ripple effect of a single donation can go only so far.
Seventeen people die each day as they wait for the potentially lifesaving gift. Another person is added to the transplant list every eight minutes.
That’s why visitors and patients of Penn State Health are seeing a lot of similar colors around the medical campus today, as employees, College of Medicine faculty, staff and students were asked to show their support for organ donation on National Donate Life Blue & Green Day Friday by wearing blue and green.
Observed in April each year as part of Donate Life America’s National Donate Life Month, the event promotes the importance of registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor.
Penn State Health is a strong supporter of the effort each year. Fittingly, early in the month, the health system’s Transplant team leads a Donate Life flag-raising ceremony on medical center grounds, featuring area patients. In 2024, those patient included one who received a Christmas Day lifesaving liver transplant just four months prior, on Christmas Day 2023, along with a mother and daughter, each of whom underwent heart transplants.
Penn State Health also offers a convenient registration process for potential organ donors.