The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Organ donor

LiveOnNY and TSO Honor Northern Westchester Hospital’s President and CEO, Joel Seligman

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A “Make a Difference Award” during Organ Donor Enrollment Day

Northern Westchester Hospital President and CEO Joel Seligman receives LiveOnNY’s Make A Difference award from LiveOnNY President and CEO Helen Irving.

On Organ Donor Enrollment Day, Helen Irving, President & CEO of LiveOnNY, presented Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) President and CEO, Joel Seligman, with the Make A Difference award for his continued support of organ donation. Seligman was honored for his commitment to raising awareness, providing education and registering lifesaving donors. Assemblyman David Buchwald, Janet Ocasio from Transplant Support Organization, and Mount Kisco Mayor Gina Picinich were also on hand to show their support and appreciation.

NWH received Platinum status from LiveOnNY for four years in a row for having the largest effort to increase the number of registered donors at a community hospital.  New York State has the lowest rate of registered eligible organ donors in the country.  As part of the event, NWH hosted an organ donation enrollment table.

ABOUT LIVEONNY:

LiveOnNY is a nonprofit, federally designated organ procurement organization (OPO) dedicated to saving lives, providing comfort, and strengthening legacies through organ, eye, and tissue donation. The OPO, which was established in 1978, serves a culturally and ethnically diverse population of 13 million residents in New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley. Working closely with transplant centers and hospitals, LiveOnNY coordinates organ, eye, and tissue donation for transplant, educates the public and healthcare professionals about donation and transplantation, and promotes the importance of signing up on the New York State Donate Life Registry.  LiveOnNY works closely with 11 transplant centers, nearly 100 hospitals, and several tissue and eye banks.  LiveOnNY is accredited by the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) and a member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which oversees the organ transplant waiting list in the U.S. For more information, please visit LiveOnNY.org.

(L-R): New York State Assemblyman David Buchwald, Janet Ocasio of the Transplant Support Organization; NWH President and CEO Joel Seligman; Mount Kisco Mayor Gina Picinich; and LiveOnNY President and CEO, Helen Irving, celebrate Organ Donor Enrollment Day.

About Northern Westchester Hospital:

Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH), a member of Northwell Health, provides quality, patient-centered care that is close to home through a unique combination of medical expertise, leading-edge technology, and a commitment to humanity. Over 650 highly-skilled physicians, state-of-the-art technology and professional staff of caregivers are all in place to ensure that you and your family receive treatment in a caring, respectful and nurturing environment. NWH has established extensive internal quality measurements that surpass the standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) National Hospital Quality Measures. Our high-quality standards help to ensure that the treatment you receive at NWH is among the best in the nation. For more information, please visit www.nwhc.net and connect with us on Facebook.

 

About Northwell Health:

Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, about 750 outpatient facilities and more than 13,600 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 70,000 employees – 16,000-plus nurses and 4,000 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We’re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Two Chappaqua Residents Emphasize Critical Need for Organs

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Learn More and Enroll on Organ Donor Enrollment Day in New Castle: Thursday, October 6

My daughter Acacia received a life saving transplant at 13 months old. Total strangers saved my daughter’s life. Today she is a thriving freshman at HGHS. Please sign up to be an organ donor today and help give the gift of life.”  Hailey Puleo of Chappaqua

“You can never really understand how important being an organ donor is until someone in your family is in desperate need of a life saving transplant.” Barbara Lerman of Chapppaqua, whose daughter Sydney had a heart transplant 11 years ago at the age of 2.

Acacia, organ recipient
Acacia, organ recipient

LiveOnNY is holding its second annual Organ Donor Enrollment Day on Thursday, October 6th.  This event is focused on one goal: to enroll as many willing New Yorkers as possible as organ donors in a single day.

While 92% of New Yorkers support organ donation, only 27% of New Yorkers are registered. New York ranks 50th out of 50 states in the percentage of residents registered as organ donors, and New York ranks third in the country for the number of people waiting for organ transplants, according to LongLiveNY.org.  Additionally, according to LiveOnNY, more than 120,000 people in the United States are waiting for organ transplants. Of these, nearly 10,000 live in the greater New York metropolitan area. This contributes to a troubling fact: every 18 hours a New Yorker dies waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.enrollment-day-logo

We are doing our part – here in New Castle.  You have a choice: it can be another ordinary day, or it can be an EXTRAordinary day. It can be EXTRAordinary because you have the opportunity to be a part of an incredible movement to support organ donation and sign up to help save lives. A table will be set up in front of 26 S Greeley Ave, Chappaqua from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Let’s make October 6th an EXTRAordinary day!

 

Sydney: an organ recipient when she was two years old.
Sydney: a heart recipient when she was two years old.

Joel Seligman, President and CEO of Northern Westchester Hospital stated “Organ donation is a second chance at life, and we’re hopeful that on this enrollment day we’ll see a significant increase in registered donors in our area, I am grateful to the Town Supervisors and their teams who have embraced this initiative, for our NWH volunteers, the willingness of organ donor recipients and donor family members to share their stories and for the efforts of LiveOnNY.”

“New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein stated “Our community is so incredibly generous with their time and money,  We are asking them to be generous with organ donation. If we can get one person to donate, it makes this worthwhile. Come give the gift of life.  I would like to thank Barbara Lerman and Hailey Puleo for their help – not just with our drive on October 6th – but everyday!”.