ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Emotions were high Wednesday as people impacted by organ donation came together in Allentown to mark National Donate Life Month.
Among them was Melissa Mondschein of Allentown, whose 37-year-old daughter, Jennifer, passed away in February 2023, and whose organs she decided to donate.
"We just thought donating her organs would be something she'd love to do,” Mondschein said.
"She was in hospital here, she was brain dead, so there was nothing we could do anymore. And I just thought it would be good to donate her organs, if possible."
“Let somebody else have a chance of life and I know she's out there somewhere."
"Organ donation is a vital process that we do in health care in order to give people who are at a potential for end of life a new chance at life and a new beginning."Kathleen Grant, St. Luke's Health Network’s manager of patient care services and the intensive care department
The Mondschein family was joined by the medical team at St. Luke’s University Health Network for the ceremony held in the new wing of St. Luke’s Allentown campus.
Kathleen Grant, the network’s manager of patient care services and the intensive care department, said the event honored organ recipients and donors who have been able to give a life-saving organ.
"Organ donation is a vital process that we do in health care in order to give people who are at a potential for end of life a new chance at life and a new beginning,” Grant said.
She said St. Luke's Allentown is not an organ transplant center, but it does harvest organs for donation at that location.
'Raise awareness'
About 5,000 people across the region are waiting for an organ, according to the Gift of Life Donor Program.
Breanna Noonan is a hospital services coordinator for Gift of Life, which serves as a link between hospitals, transplant centers, patients and families.
"We have about 5,000 people in our region waiting and about 105,000 people in our country waiting."Breanna Noonan, hospital services coordinator, Gift of Life
"We have about 5,000 people in our region waiting and about 105,000 people in our country waiting," she said.
"So we want to increase donor designations and just raise awareness about the importance of donation and transplantation."
Noonan said such events help to encourage people to become organ donors. People can do so by opting in at the DMV or online at registerme.org.
'I thank them'
The two organ donation recipients who spoke of their experience at the event each had a connection to St. Luke’s.
Stephen Thackrah, of Annapolis, Maryland, received a pancreas and a kidney. He is the cousin of a St. Luke’s employee.
David Adams is the recipient of a heart transplant. He is the uncle of one of the nurses.
Thackrah traveled more than three hours to speak Wednesday and had a message for his donor.
“I don’t know who they are, I’ll never know who they are, but I thank them,” he said at the podium.
“It makes me feel great and knowing that she's out there, part of her is out there giving somebody else life. We lost her, but then it benefited two other people."Melissa Mondschein, about her daughter, Jennifer
Mondschein was moved to tears during the speeches and when Grant spoke of her daughter’s last gift.
She said hearing people who benefit from organ donation helps in her grieving process.
Her daughter’s kidney went to save a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman received her liver.
“It makes me feel great and knowing that she's out there, part of her is out there giving somebody else life," Mondschein said. "We lost her, but then it benefited two other people."
