NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Jill E. McCormick, Director, Marketing & Planning
St. Edward Mercy Health System
Phone: 479-314-6037
Email: jill.mccormick@mercy.net

St. Edward Mercy to Celebrate National Donate Life Month

Fort Smith, Ark. – March 26, 2009 – St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in conjunction with Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency (ARORA) will celebrate National Donate Life Month by raising a flag in honor of organ donors on Tuesday, March 31 at 10:30 a.m. at the flagpoles in front of the Centers of Excellence. Members of the media are invited to attend.

Hospital and ARORA staff and family members of a donor family will participate in the flag ceremony. All are invited to attend.

In the event of rain, the ceremony will be held inside and the flag will be raised at a later date. St. Edward Mercy and ARORA representatives will be available for media interviews after the event.

“Donating life is a true gift,” said Dr. Larry Pearce, vice president of medical affairs for the St. Edward Mercy Health System. “Lives are saved because people make the decision to become an organ donor.”

Donate Life Month, which began in April 2003, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than 98,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant. Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant.

In 2008, St. Edward Mercy Medical Center received two awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) at the Fourth Annual Learning Congress and Medal of Honor Ceremony held in Nashville. The Medical Center received the Medal of Honor for Organ Donation and an award for the number of organs transplanted per donor.

For more information about HRSA visit organdonor.gov or contact Misty Wilkerson, organ procuremen

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