In February 2018, 62-year-old Sandra Levine was placed on a waiting list for a liver transplant after contracting the liver disease cirrhosis. She was in the liver transplant program at the South Florida Transplant Center at Broward Health Medical Center.
“When you are facing death,” said Levine, “everything else doesn’t matter.”
According to the U.S. Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplantation, every 10 minutes another person is added to the national transplant waiting list and every day 20 people die waiting for a transplant.
“Organ donation is extremely important,” said Cosme Manzarbeitia, M.D., director of abdominal transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at Broward Health Medical Center and part of the Broward Health Physician Group. “Without donors there is no transplant.”Several months later, on September 6, 2018, Levine underwent a successful liver transplant at Broward Health Medical Center and was given a second chance at life.
Broward Health Medical Center established the first liver transplant program in Broward County in 2004, and has since performed more than 350 liver transplants. Currently there are 21 patients on the liver transplant list.
“Broward Health Medical Center has a long history of not only providing transplants, but also supporting organ donation,” said Heather Havericak, Interim CEO of Broward Health Medical Center. “We will continue to encourage patients, staff and the community to choose the gift of life and become registered organ donors.”
Broward Health Medical Center has been recognized for its continuous support and dedication to the cause of organ, eye and tissue donation, as well as its successes with donation and transplantation. In November 2018, Broward Health Medical Center received a Silver Unit of The Year Award at the Miracles of Life Awards by the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency for its advances with donations.
According to the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, one of Broward Health’s organ procurement organizations, 48 lives were saved in 2018 due to organ, tissue and eye donation from Broward Health Medical Center.
