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Several area residents whose lives have been transformed as organ donation recipients or as their relatives shared moving testimonials at a ceremony held to mark the start of National Donate Life Month at St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus Monday.

The goal of the ceremony–which included a flag-raising in front of the hospital’s main entrance–was to promote awareness of the need for more people to become designated organ donors. To that end, St. Luke’s campus hospitals will also be bathed in blue and green external floodlighting on April 12 to call attention to the need for organ donations, SLUHN officials said.

According to statistics shared at the ceremony, although more than 46,000 Americans receive life-saving transplants annually, approximately six thousand people die each year while on waiting lists. That number could be reduced nearly to zero if everyone who is eligible volunteered to be an organ donor.

Gary Stever became an advocate for organ donation after his son, Dave, was critically injured in an accident in Philadelphia several years ago. When doctors determined that his injuries were “not recoverable,” Stever said he and his family discovered that letting Dave go so he could save the lives of others was the start of their own journey of “multigenerational healing.”

Organ Donor — Gary Stever talks about his son, Dave, whose decision to be an organ donor saved the lives of several severely ill people.

“The ripple effect of the gifts that we get go on for a long time,” he said, adding that his son’s organs ultimately saved the lives of three people.

Rosemary “Rosie” Policari-Werner received a double lung transplant that allowed her to begin life again in early 2023.

A longtime employee of St. Luke’s University Health Network who currently works in the pediatrics department in Bethlehem, Policari-Werner became emotional when she described how before her transplant she couldn’t do much but sit and watch from the sidelines as family members took care of things she could no longer do.

St. Luke’s University Health Network employee Rosie Policari-Werner shares the story of her 2023 double lung transplant.

Having been on oxygen for two years prior to joining the transplant waiting list, when the call finally came that there was a donor set of lungs for her, she said she was “elated” and “couldn’t believe that it was going to happen.”

Today, Policari-Werner said, she can “climb mountains” thanks to the lungs she received.

Jessica Will of Macungie shared a similarly inspiring post-transplant transformation story, which for her began when she received the gift of a new heart in February 2019.

Will needed a transplant because her own heart was badly weakened by a chemotherapy drug she had received as a child. Later, as a college student, she said she tried to make up for the activities she had missed out on by “living it up,” which she said caused her to become “really sick” and ultimately receive an implanted defribillator to keep her heart beating.

By 2018 even that level of intervention was no longer enough and Will recalled that she could feel herself “breaking down.” As Christmas approached, her doctor urged her to prepare for a transplant, which she ultimately received two months later.

Heart Transplant — Jessica Will of Macungie recalls how challenging life was before her heart transplant in 2019. Although an implanted defibrillator helped keep her alive until then, she said its frequent overactivation also greatly reduced her quality of life.

Although that surgery marked the beginning of a new life for her, she knew it was only possible because someone else’s life had ended, which Will said left her feeling emotionally shattered.

“I struggled very much with survivor’s guilt,” she told attendees at the ceremony.

That began to change after she met her organ donor’s mother, Jen, and learned that he had been a passenger in a car that was struck by a drunk driver.

“She has told me that it’s OK to celebrate,” she said. “I think we have a relationship that has healed each other.”

In addition to being the same age as one of her sons, Will said she has since discovered many shared connections with the family of the young man whose generosity saved her life.

“He has given me a life that I never knew before,” she said, recalling that after hiking to the top of a mountain in Greece she knew that her donor was with her when she looked down and saw the shape of a heart cut out of the rocky coastline.

“Please think about Dom,” Will told the audience. “His legacy goes on forever.”

National Donate Life Month is held every April to raise awareness of the critical need for organ donors and to encourage everyone to register to be one. In the U.S., approximately 100,000 people are currently waiting to receive a lifesaving transplant, approximately 5,000 of whom reside in the greater Lehigh Valley area.

To learn more about organ donation and register to be a donor, visit the Gift of Life Donor Program website.