For the second year, Flagstaff Medical Center has been awarded the Medal of Honor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its achievements in raising organ donation rates. FMC is one of only five Arizona hospitals to receive the national recognition award; nationwide only 281 out of serveral thousand hospitals received the award.

The Medal of Honor award is part of the HHS Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative. The award recognizes hospitals whose commitment to organ donation has resulted in donor families choosing to donate multiple organs. This difficult decision results in numerous lives being saved and an improved quality of life for many organ recipients.

In 2008, FMC had seven patients who became organ donors; in 2007, FMC also had seven families choose organ donation after the death of their loved one.

According to the Donor Network of Arizona, from January 2008 to October 2009, 704 received organ donations thanks to 475 Arizona organ donors in Arizona and thousands more were healed through tissue donation. Currently, there are 1,902 Arizonans and 104,641 people nationwide are on the organ donation waiting list. Fortunately, 1,609,402 Arizonans are listed as potential organ donors; however, certain criteria must be met at the time of death to become an actual organ donor.

To learn more about organ donation or to register to become a potential organ donor, visit donatelifeaz.org or call 800 94-DONOR.