National Donate Life Awareness Month

Over 114,000 Americans currently wait for a life-saving organ transplant. Over 600 are Iowans. UnityPoint Health - St. Luke’s Hospital is helping raise awareness about organ donation. April is National Donate Life Month.

To create awareness in Donate Life Iowa and St. Luke’s employees created a Butterfly Memorial lining the walls of St. Luke’s first floor with hundreds of large and small butterflies representing 2017 and 2018 donors, recipients and research donors. The large butterflies represent individuals at St. Luke’s who have donated an organ, tissue and/or eye. The small butterflies represented the “life” that was saved or enhanced from the donor’s gift. There will also be large posters in the hallway with pictures of donors or recipients from Iowa.

Some facts about organ donation:

• Every 10 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.
• An average of 22 people dies each day because the organs they need are not donated in time.
• About 750,000 transplants have taken place since 1988.
• In 2019, the lives of 17,500 Americans were saved by organ donation.
• One donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and save and heal more than 200 lives through tissue donation.