Loyola University Medical Center Hosts Candlelight Ceremony to Commemorate Donors

MAYWOOD, IL – In recognition of Donate Life Month, Loyola University Medical Center will host its 32nd annual candle lighting ceremony in honor of organ and tissue donors, their families and countless health care team members. Loyola Medicine colleagues will gather with transplant recipients, their families and donor families to remember those who gave the gift of life and encourage others to become organ donors. The ceremony will be held at noon April 7 in the atrium of the Loyola Outpatient Center and followed by light refreshments.

Terri Thede will be one of the speakers sharing their story. Terri made the selfless decision to donate a kidney to a transplant patient at Loyola Medicine she had never met. Thede’s altruism jump-started a living-donor kidney exchange that enabled two other Loyola patients to receive lifesaving kidney transplants. The three transplants were performed simultaneously.

“As a 2017 Loyola living kidney donor, I’m honored to attend the candlelight ceremony,” Thede said. “It reminds me of the difference living donors and donor families make to those waiting for an organ. My experience moved me so much that I made a career change to assist others considering the living donation option. I am grateful to the Loyola team for their work on behalf of living donors.”

Thede is now the Vice President and Donor Connect Project Manager and non-directed kidney donor at the National Kidney Donation Organization. She said she knew the enormous difference a kidney transplant can make to a patient who otherwise would have to rely on dialysis. “If I could change one person’s life, I felt it was very important to do so.”

As of March 2024, over 100,000 individuals in the United States are in need of life-saving organ transplants. In 2023, there were 46,630 transplants, according to UNOS, a non-profit organization that manages the nation’s organ transplant system. Chirantan Mangukia, MD, surgical director of Lung Transplantation at Loyola Medicine, has devoted his career to giving patients new life. He encourages everyone to register as an organ donor, “It’s the most precious commodity in the world, You can spend billions or trillions, but you can’t just get an organ. So it is very important. It’s like transferring one soul to another.”

The Loyola Transplant Center provides expert care for heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas and bone marrow and stem cell transplants, including multi-organ transplants. In 2023, Loyola Medicine performed 400 transplants, and the Living Donor Program had over 51 participants. Experts in surgery, nutrition, social work, financial coordination, physical therapy and psychology work together to guide patients and donors through the transplant process.

The event will also feature ambassadors from Gift of Hope who coordinate the organ and tissue donation process and provide education about the importance of organ and tissue donation to the public and health care professionals in Illinois and northwest Indiana. Since 1986, their efforts have saved the lives of more than 23,000 organ transplant recipients and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of tissue transplant recipients.

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About Loyola Medicine 

Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago’s western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC), Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, MacNeal Hospital, as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from nearly 2,000 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. LUMC is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, the John L. Keeley, MD, Emergency Department, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois’s largest burn center, a certified comprehensive stroke center, transplant center and a children’s hospital. Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Established in 1961, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital is a 247-licensed-bed community hospital in Melrose Park that includes the Judd A. Weinberg Emergency Department, the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care, Loyola Cancer Care & Research at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center, acute rehabilitation, a transitional care center, childcare center and fitness center. MacNeal Hospital is a 374-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Berwyn with advanced medical, surgical and psychiatric services and a 68-bed behavioral health program. For more information, visit loyolamedicine.org. You can also follow Loyola Medicine on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or X (formerly known as Twitter). 

About Trinity Health 

Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, Catholic health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 121,000 colleagues and nearly 36,500 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 27 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 101 hospitals, 126 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 136 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. In fiscal year 2023, the Livonia, Michigan-based health system invested $1.5 billion in its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. For more information, visit us at www.trinity-health.org, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly known as Twitter).