Every April, The Ohio State University Medical Center (OSUMC) celebrates National Donate Life month by planting eight-spoked scarlet and grey pinwheels. An eight-spoked pinwheel represents the represents how one donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation (heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and intestines). Each pinwheel represents the lives saved by organ donation at OSUMC since the hospital first transplanted a kidney in 1967.

This number has grown exponentially over the years and is now closing in on 14,000. It is incredible to think of all the lives impacted by the efforts of the medical team at OSUMC and the generous donors, often, and rightly, referred to as heroes. 

This year, I had the joy of celebrating along side donor families, donor recipients, living donors, my family, and friends. The event took place on Sunday, April 12th. It was such a momentous event for me to be there alongside family and friends, who have seen me through both of my double lung transplants, to plant our pinwheels.

Taking a step back and watching the breeze turn the shining scarlet and gray pinwheel blades is a visually memorable experience and an auditory experience. You can hear the soft rustling of the blades rotating almost mimicking a hushing, calming sound through the Phyllis Jones Legacy Park.

As the sun hits the blades, legacies are remembered and honored. Walking through the crowds of friends and families huddled together, you catch snippets of the lives people are now able to live, unattached and independent of the medical equipment and treatments previously anchoring them to their homes or hospitals. It is a wonderful, awe-inspiring event that captures the beauty and gift of organ donation.