Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias joined congregants at a west suburban church Sunday morning to inspire more people to become organ donors.
Giannoulias was at Jordan Temple Church in Hillside for National Donor Sabbath, a day observed annually to encourage faith leaders nationwide to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation.
“We gather here today, not just to worship together in community, but also to remark on the miracle that we all share, the ability to truly save lives,” Giannoulias said. “Becoming an organ tissue donor is a selfless act.”
He joined Jordan Temple’s Senior Pastor Stephen Richardson, the recipient of two heart transplants. He received the first in November 1996 when he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. He got the second in November 2013 when medications formed plaque buildup that blocked his arteries. He also got a new kidney that same year.
“Three hearts, three kidneys and I’m still moving, I’m very thankful,” Richardson told the Sun-Times. “A donor extends a person’s life.”
Roughly 2,000 transplants are performed each year in the state, Giannoulias said, and 6.4 million Illinoisans are on the organ donor registry.
“But even with all the registered donors, there are still people who are unable to get the donation that they need,” Giannoulias said. “More than 4,000 Illinoisans right now are waking up this morning and are currently waiting for a life-saving donation, and tragically, around 300 people die each year just waiting for a transplant.”
One donor can save up to 25 lives, he said.
Part of the motivation for his office’s campaign is to eliminate the stigma and dispel myths surrounding organ donation. One common myth is that if someone is a donor and sick in the hospital, they won’t be revived so their organs can be used.
Richardson has heard first-hand several of the myths people believe. He says he speaks about his experience to spread accurate information about organ and tissue donation.
“I’ve heard all the myths, all the stories, but that’s just not how the system works, and I’m a testimony to that,” Richardson said.
People of color are less likely to register as organ donors. A study found that only one-third of African Americans plan to be organ donors, compared with more than half of white Americans. Their reasons for not signing up include little awareness of the importance of organ donation and a distrust of the medical system, according to the study.
Richardson, who was also celebrating 31 years as a pastor at Jordan Temple, emphasized how valuable and life-changing organ donation can be, for both the recipient and their loved ones. When he got his first heart transplant in 1996, his kids were 8 and 10 years old.
“They spent three months going back and forth to the hospital and watching me deteriorate,” Richardson said. “A heart transplant meant that they had the opportunity to have me in their lives.”
He recently went in for an angiogram to check for blocked blood vessels.
“The good news is, is that everything checked out,” Richardson told the congregation, who cheered and shouted amen.