The Delaware region's organ donation nonprofit was the busiest group of its kind in U.S. history in 2015.
Last year also broke records for organ donations across the country.
The United Network for Organ Sharing reported Thursday that the U.S. broke 30,000 organ donations for the first time in 2015. Of those, more than 1,600 happened through Gift of Life, which serves Delaware and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
It's the most organ donations ever coordinated in a year by one U.S. nonprofit.
Some were handled at Christiana Care, where Dr. Sidney Swanson is the chief of transplant surgery. He explains why this is such a busy region for donations:
"I think one of the most important things is incorporating all the different donor hospitals," Swanson says. "Not only is Christiana a transplant center, but being also a major trauma center, it's one of the top hospitals for organ donation in the area as well.'"
"I can't do anything without that family, on the worst night of their life, making that decision to donate."
He says regional hospitals and the state have worked to get everyone involved in donations -- from hospital staff, to DMV clerks who are often the first to ask if a newly licensed driver wants to be an organ donor.
Just over half of Delaware drivers -- 51 percent, or more than 400,000 people in all three counties -- have now answered yes to that question. Gift of Life reports that more women choose to donate than men, as do people in their twenties.
In recent years, organ donation has also become a mandatory part of Delaware's high school health requirements and driver's education.
Still, Swanson says demand always outstrips supply, with 17 Americans dying on organ waiting lists every day. But he says the increase in donations is heartening. He looks back on one surgery he did when he worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington:
"We had a patient who needed a kidney transplant, and her husband was ready to deploy -- this is early in the Iraq experience -- and I was able to give her a kidney," Swanson remembers. "And the day before he deployed, he said, 'Thank you for giving me back my wife.'"
Swanson says he always tells organ recipients to thank donors and families, not just their surgeon. And he says people who want to donate should be sure to talk to their families about their wishes now, to ease the process when the time comes.
"The day before he deployed, he said, 'Thank you for giving me back my wife.'"
"We've committed to providing this transplantation service to our population, and to do it properly, we need donors," Swanson says. "I like to say I can't do anything without that family, on the worst night of their life, making that decision to donate -- or agreeing with their loved one who's made that prior designation. That's how it starts."
Christiana Care only conducts adult kidney transplants -- 250 since their program began a decade ago. A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children handles pediatric transplants, performing between 12 and 17 a year. They transplanted five kidneys, three livers and four hearts in 2015.
Delaware organ donors per county
