Lincoln Memorial Hospital Observes National Donate Life Month with Flag-Raising Ceremony

[May 06, 2024] 

On April 30, Lincoln Memorial Hospital (LMH) held a flag-raising ceremony and reception to honor those who gave life through organ donation as well as their families and to promote awareness of organ and tissue donation.

Dolan Dalpoas and Terri Cagle

Terri Cagle of Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donation Network explained that April is Donate Life Month, and her organization celebrates and honors those who gave and offers support to the families. Gift of Hope works with 186 hospitals to coordinate the process of organ and tissue donation according to federal regulations. Donate Life Month is an opportunity to promote the gift of life and sight.

Roxell Stelle, LMH Chief Nursing Officer, said “It’s a beautiful gift. Something good can come from something bad.” There were four donor families present for the ceremony.

LMH CEO Dolan Dalpoas welcomed guests and LMH staff to the event. The guest speaker was Judy Foster whose family has experienced donation both as recipients and as donors. Foster spoke about her family’s experience, first as recipients after her husband was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease, when their children were very young. After waiting on the transplant list, her husband received a double lung transplant of the lungs from a 28 year old woman. Foster hopes that the donor family knows the impact they made. Her husband has had the opportunity to see his children grow up; the youngest is in college.

Foster spoke about the support she had from her family during husband’s illness, transplant, and recovery. Her parents cared for her children full time while she was the full-time caregiver for her husband for the three months he required 24-hour care. She particularly leaned on her brother Jeff for support, who also stepped up when their father had to pull back from farming to help care for Foster's children. He was her “crutch,” she said. Jeff also saw what organ donation had done for her family, so he signed up on the organ donation registry. Their parents later passed away within 9 months of each other in 2021 and 2022. The family gathered on August 6 and five days later Jeff was baling hay in timber when his tractor crashed. At the hospital, it was discovered he had had a brain aneurysm. When he did not recover, one of Foster’s friends suggested organ donation. Foster was surprised she had not thought of it herself. It turned out to be “such a healing decision.” Jeff’s kidneys went to two individuals as well as both corneas and tissue. Foster said that we do not think about how much organ donation can help the family of the donor. She stated it is uplifting, gives hope, and brings comfort. It can help bring closure. “It brought peace to the grieving process,” she said.

Foster’s remarks were followed by a prayer of healing and thanks for the “courage, generosity, and love” of those involved in organ donation. The American flag was lowered and a purple flag honoring organ donation was attached beneath it. Everyone stood while both flags were raised together at full mast as “a beacon of hope.”

All of the Memorial Health Systems hospitals held flag-raising ceremonies the same day, including Decatur, Jacksonville, Taylorville, and Springfield, in addition to Lincoln. For more information on organ and tissue donation or to join the registry, visit www.giftofhope.org.

[Stephanie Hall]