Organ Donor Enrollment Day Marked at Sunset Hospital

Unleash your inner hero.

On October 11, NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn and the non-profit organization LiveOnNY hosted a day-long organ donor registration event at the hospital, 150 55th Street, as part of their annual Organ Donor Enrollment Day observance.

Joining them was the family of Bryan Trinidad, a young man who lost his own life at the age of 27, but — by being a donor — managed to save three others.

Trinidad signed up to be an organ donor at age 22 in 2012. On September 26, 2018, he was taken to the hospital after being involved in a fist fight. After Trinidad was declared brain dead, his pancreas, both his kidneys and his liver were donated. A 68-year old woman received Trinidad’s liver, a 43-year old woman received his right kidney, and a 29-year old woman received his left kidney and pancreas.

His aunt, Deborah Trinidad, was unaware of his decision to become a donor until a nurse at the hospital informed her. She said how proud she was of her nephew, and urged the public to follow his lead.

“We’re so proud of him of making the decision at an early age.” said Trinidad. “There’s a lot of people out there, young or old, that can use an organ. You never know when it’s your day, and you can help someone out there.”

In fact, every 18 hours, a New Yorker dies waiting for an organ transplant because there aren’t enough registered donors, according to NYU-Langone, whose efforts to encourage more people to register as organ donors led the hospital to win an award last year for its organ donation enrollment outreach programs, which include education events and a flag-raising ceremony to honor past donors, according to Elizabeth Douglas, a nurse and the co-chair of the hospital’s Organ Donor Council.

According to Scott Wohl,  the senior manager of community engagement & activation for LiveOnNY — the federally designated organization for organ donation in the greater New York area which facilitates life-saving transplant surgeries for patients in need — 92 percent of New Yorkers support the idea of organ donation, but only 32 percent have enrolled.

Wohl said the organization wants to close that gap and enroll as many donors as it can. “It’s actually very clear,” he told this paper. “One donor can save up to eight lives, and our job is really to save the 8,000 to 10,000 New Yorkers on the waitlist right now.”

To learn more or enroll as an organ donor, go to https://www.liveonny.org/.