Mrs. Charlotte Wong, Educational Coordinator with Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates from Lexington, KY was a guest speaker for the Health Sciences Program at the Clinton County Area Technology Center on September 28, 2011.

Mrs. Wong spoke with the students about organ donation including: organs and tissues available for donation, procedures to remove the donated organs, procedures done to transplant organs, and facts and figures about organ and tissue donation.

The students were very attentive and participated in the organ donation discussion with several students deciding to become organ donors.

The students and Instructor Billie Frye, RN would like to thank Mrs. Wong for taking the time to come to the school and talk with the class about organ donation.

This information was especially important to Savannah Marcum who has written the following letter:

On September 28th 2011 my heart was touched by a stranger, Charlotte Wong from Kentucky Organ Donors Affiliation (KODA) .

At the beginning of my Emergency Procedures class I knew that we were going to be introduced to organ donation, we had begun to learn about all the donateable organs

As we were rolling through the list; kidney, heart, lung and liver, Ms. Wong asked the class of one more organ.

We were all silent, but I had a good idea of what it was,. Then my teacher, Ms. Frye, looked at me and said “Savannah, you should know this.” I gave her a smile and said, “Pancreas?”. Ms. Wong, with a puzzled look on her face asked Ms. Frye why I should know that.

And as I told her that I was a juvenile diabetic she started to smile and said to me, “You are the reason I do my job.” I froze right in my place and started to cry. I just wanted to give her a big hug and tell her how much that had meant to me, so I did.

I never would have thought, before that day, that anyone could ever be willing to do their job with people like me in mind. To know that people are working hard to find a cure, and then for someone to tell me that she is working, and hoping to deliver a pancreas to a hospital, or to be transported to a young child, or full grown adult, so that they never suffer again as I and others do every day, truly means the world to me.

Sometimes we get caught up in our everyday lives and we forget about diseases such as cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, lung disease and many others.

To have the dedication that Ms. Wong does to help others in need, in any way possible, is a gift.

I greatly appreciate it, just as any other person would.

To see the commitment Ms. Wong has put into her job for a simple reason and that she has had a smile on her face and hope in her heart for all those who need transplants, gives me hope as well.

Savannah Marcum

Clinton County High School and Area Technology Center student Savannah Marcum, and Kentucky Organ Donar Affiliates Coordinator Charlotte Wong.

Wong speaks with local
students about organ donation