A new flag is waving above the Clarion Hospital.
Clarion Hospital and the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) raised the CORE flag Tuesday at the hospital to commemorate National Donate Life Month.
Ron Flick of Oil City became an organ donor in 1972 when his brother suffered renal failure. Flick said six members of his family were tested and he was the closest match.
“My brother lived for another 10 years,” said Flick. “He was able to watch his daughter grow up and to go out to eat with his wife. He lived a normal life before he passed away of leukemia.”
Flick urged everyone to become a living donor because that increases the success of a transplant. He said that being a donor is an “absolute gift.”
“You may not think of it at the time but one day you will realize you had a part in saving someone’s life,” he said.
Craig Beerey, 33, of Clarion, received a double lung transplant after being diagnosed at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Beerey was placed on the transplant list, and he stayed on that list for six years because he was deemed too healthy for the transplant. He was finally told he was sick enough for the transplant.
After four false starts, Beerey received his new lungs. He said his donor didn’t survive but he had signed a donor card when he got his driver’s license and because of that five different people received new organs.
Beerey said because of his gift he is able to go to the YMCA and live a normal life.
Regina Grazziano, the professional regional coordinator for CORE, said this year’s theme is “Life is a Beautiful Ride.”
CORE is one of 58 federally designated not-for-profit organ procurement organizations in the U.S. serving more than five million people in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Chemung County, New York. CORE coordinates the recovery and matching of organs, tissues and corneas for transplantation within the service region and works to create a culture of donation within the hospitals and communities we serve.
For more information, visit www.core.org or call (800) DONORS-7.