Danielle Orsini
An eight-spoke pinwheel was chosen to represent how a single organ donor can save up to eight lives
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is in the business of saving lives. Last year, the center performed around 450 transplants and has performed more than 9,000 since the center first opened in 1967.
For the 10th year in a row, the Wexner Medical Center highlighted the successes of organ transplantation and organ donations by honoring organ donors, former transplant recipients and living kidney donors with a transplant reunion and pinwheel planting. On April 8 the center welcomed approximately 1,000 people whose lives have been affected by the Wexner Medical Center.
The honorees saw more than 9,000 pinwheels planted, each one representing a lifesaving procedure performed at the facility. To symbolize how a single organ donor can save up to eight lives, an eight-spoke pinwheel was selected.
“It’s a moving sight,” says Dr. Ken Washburn, an executive director of the transplant center. “Organ donation is clearly the message we want people to take away. We can all pay it forward and we can make an impact by being an organ donor. There’s no reason not to be.”
Tiffany Machlitt is one of those 9,000 people whose life has been changed by the transplant center. A survivor of eight heart attacks and recipient of a donated heart, Machlitt attended the pinwheel planting for the first time this year.
“It was wonderful,” she says. “It was wonderful to get to see all these people who got a second chance.”
The first heart she was offered on Christmas Eve of 2017 turned out not to be viable, yet 15 hours later she received a call with news that another heart had been identified. After her eighth heart attack, which lasted a total of 15 hours, she finally received her new heart.
“I had three open-heart surgeries in less than a year,” Machlitt says, “but I was never too worried. I always knew I was going to get my heart.”
The experience gave Machlitt, wife, stepmother to three teenagers and soon-to-be grandmother, a greater appreciation for life.
Former organ donors and recipients were honored for the 10th year in a row
“I get up every day and I’m grateful. I don’t take everything as serious anymore. It doesn’t really matter that the laundry isn’t done yet,” she says.
Machlitt has always loved going on road trips, once driving to Texas just so that her son could try an In-N-Out burger. Receiving the transplant has allowed Tiffany to continue going on road trips with her family and to continue attending and volunteering at her church. They have plans to visit Nashville soon.
Machlitt hopes to write a book one day about her heart transplant experience to better educate children and adults about the significance of organ donation.
“I don’t think people realize the importance of organ donation,” she says. “I will always be thankful to the family and my donor.”
You can sign up to become an organ donor by visiting organdonor.gov or by visiting the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Evan Wehmeyer is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
