Lakewood Ranch Medical Center honors organ donor

Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is flying a new banner outside its main entrance this week. 

In honor of a local family who chose to make an organ donation, the center will fly a “Donate Life” flag for three days. The flag will then be given to the family who made the donation, according to the medical center’s Facebook post.

The flag, called a LifeLink flag, is from the LifeLink Foundation in Tampa. The non-profit organization’s mission is to recover life-saving organs and issue to be used for transplantation therapy. The organization facilitates the donation of the organs and public education.

This is the third flag raising that Lakewood Ranch Medical has done this year. The flag is raised from the time the individual or the family of the individual chooses to make the organ donation through the transplant process.

“The Donate Life flag is raised during the donation period as a way to celebrate the memory to the individual who gave the gift of life, and as a symbol to the community to encourage others to register as an organ donor,” said Betsy Edwards, spokeswoman for LifeLink.

So far in 2015, the medical center has had 7 organ donations that have saved 14 other lives. Edwards said one organ donor can save as many as 8 lives depending on what organs can be recovered.