Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital Honors Organ, Tissue Donors

Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital’s Life Team Committee hosted a Donate Life flag-raising ceremony to honor more than a dozen hospital patients who became organ and tissue donors in the last year.

“I am so glad to be here with my family to raise awareness about the need for organ donation,” said Ruth Scavo, a patient of Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital who received a donated kidney and pancreas fifteen years ago.

“I have nine grandkids now," she added. "The oldest was only six weeks old when I had my transplant. Without the gift of these organs, I would not have seen any of them grown up.”

Ben Harman, a grounds worker at the hospital whose nephew was a donor, had the honor of raising the flag. Also in attendance were Grazyna Parsons of Lake Forest, whose husband William was a tissue donor last year, and North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham, whose wife Gwendolyn was an eye donor. Reverend Emily Rosencrans, manager of Pastoral Care at the hospital, led the ceremony.

National Donate Life Month (NDLM) was instituted by Donate Life America and its partnering organizations in 2003. Celebrated in April each year, NDLM features an entire month of local, regional and national activities to help encourage Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors and to celebrate those that have saved lives through the gift of donation.