Kids who got life-saving organs celebrate ‘National Donate Life Month’ at St. Christopher’s Hospital
More than 100,000 Americans — about 4,500 in the Philadelphia region — are on a waiting list for a life-saving organ.
Maria Ugarte felt pangs of sorrow, joy, and gratitude. She wiped away tears as she watched her 9-year-old daughter, Arianna, raise the “Gift of Life” flag in honor of organ donors during a ceremony Wednesday at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in North Philadelphia.
Ugarte was thinking of the boy whose parents donated his liver and a kidney to Arianna after he died in 2021.
“One person had to pass to save my daughter,” Ugarte said. “It’s emotional.”
Ugarte, 49, of the city’s Juniata neighborhood, said she doesn’t know how the 5-year-old donor died, but she knows that he loved pizza and French fries and playing Legos and the Robolex video game — just like Arianna.
April marks “National Donate Life Month,” and St. Christopher’s was a trailblazer in pediatric transplants. The hospital performed its first kidney transplant in 1973, becoming the region’s first to offer kidney, liver, and heart transplants for children. Since then, its surgeons have done more than 770 transplants: 500 kidneys, 221 livers, and 53 hearts, according to St. Christopher’s chief medical officer Doug Thompson.
“We are a pioneer in transplants,” Thompson said during an outdoor news conference at the hospital’s flagpole. “St. Christopher’s has a long history and legacy when it comes to transplant services.”
That legacy includes 20-year-old Malachi Stone, who participated in the annual flag-raising ceremony. Stone, of Montgomery County, had a kidney transplant at St. Christopher’s when he was 5. His father was his donor.
“My dad had my back. I felt blessed,” Stone said. “At first, I didn’t think I would make it this far.”
He added, “I’m doing great. I’m staying healthy, enjoying life and staying prayed up, because you never know. I’m able to dance. Jump around. Run around the house. Spend time with my brother.”
An agonizing wait
More than 100,000 Americans — about 4,500 in the Philadelphia region — are on a waiting list for a life-saving organ, said Jackie Giuffrida, director of hospital services for the Gift of Life Donor Program. The Philadelphia-based nonprofit is designated by the federal government to coordinate organ donations and transplants from deceased donors in Eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware. The program works closely with St. Christopher’s.
“Each day, our shared efforts mean the difference between life and death for someone waiting for a transplant,” Giuffrida said during the ceremony. “As we innovate and lead, we never forget that the true power of donation lies in the humanity of families who choose compassion in their hardest moments.”
About 13 people die daily while waiting for a transplant. Each donor can save up to eight lives, according to federal health officials.
» READ MORE: READ MORE: It's illegal to pay people for organs, but some advocates want a $50,000 tax credit for kidneys
The happiest moment
Arianna suffered from jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes, when she was born at Temple University Hospital in 2016. In newborns, jaundice typically clears up on its own. But when Arianna’s condition didn’t resolve, she was transferred to St. Christopher’s Intensive Care Unit. She was diagnosed with kidney failure, her mom said.
Arianna celebrated her first birthday at St. Christopher’s, where her mother sat around-the-clock by her crib, at times falling asleep from exhaustion.
“The nurses would pick her up and take her to the nurses’ station, and I’d get up and say, ‘Where’s my baby?!’ The nurse would say, `Mom, go home. Do you. We’ll take care of her,’ but I didn’t want to leave,” Ugarte said.
“I have a lot of great people in my life from here — doctors and nurses,” she said.
Arianna needed dialysis, a treatment that filters waste and toxins from failing kidneys, three times each week.
In June 2021, Arianna, then 4, had a successful liver and kidney transplant surgery that lasted 30 hours at Nemours Children’s Health in Delaware.
“When she finally opened her eyes and called me, ‘Mom,’” Ugarte said. “Oh yes, that was the happiest moment.”
Today, the third grader, who is homeschooled, participates in gymnastics and plays piano and violin. She’s perfecting a gymnast bridge position, arching her body upward with both feet and hands planted on the ground, and she’s practicing the Alicia Keys’ song “Girl on Fire” on her violin.
Arianna said she wants to become “a liver and kidney doctor,” like the ones at St. Christopher’s who give “me hope” and “make me strong.”