The John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center will join with the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency (LOPA) to mark Donate Life Month at a Donor Flag Raising Ceremony on Friday, April 7, at 11 a.m. The brief ceremony will be held at the main entrance of Willis-Knighton Medical Center, 2600 Greenwood Road in Shreveport. A reception honoring donors will follow at the Willis-Knighton Eye Institute Auditorium.

Throughout the month the John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center will raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and the gift of life, including special days of emphasis on the campuses of Willis-Knighton’s general hospitals, North, South, Bossier and Pierremont. Staff from the center will offer information about organ donation and encourage people to register as donors. Currently, more than 118,000 men, women and children are listed on the national transplant waiting list in the United States, more than 2,000 of those in Louisiana. Most people in Louisiana awaiting organ donation need kidneys, which can come from deceased or living donors since every person is born with two of them.

The John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center, part of Willis-Knighton Health System, is the only transplant center in Louisiana north of Interstate 10. The center performed its first transplant in 1990. In 2016, 66 patients received life sustaining kidney, pancreas, and liver organs at Willis-Knighton. 

To learn more about the center, visit wkhs.com/transplant