LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OneLegacy has opened the nation’s largest and most sophisticated transplant donor recovery center, providing an unmatched bridge to life for 20 million Southern Californians including those waiting to receive a lifesaving or life-altering organ, eye or tissue transplant.
Located in Azusa, California, the center serves as a donor recovery facility and lab, housing seven intensive donation care unit beds, seven operating rooms, full-service diagnostic imaging and laboratory services as well as therapy rooms for donor families. The center also features the nation’s first helipad designed exclusively to facilitate emergency transport of surgeons and organs to ensure their timely transmit needed to save the lives of those waiting for an organ transplant.
“The center will aid OneLegacy’s groundbreaking innovations in organ donation diagnostics, real-time digital communications with transplant centers nationwide and sensitive family care for families from across the most ethnically diverse community in the nation,” said OneLegacy CEO Prasad Garimella. “In tripling the size of our current facility in Redlands, the center will serve as a critical connector for Southern California’s regional healthcare system.”
OneLegacy’s new center also provides office space and a training center for a staff of 350 -- and soon to be over 400 -- donation professionals. Also housed in the new facility is the OneLegacy Foundation that has helped champion and improve organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation through public education and scientific research aimed at increasing donor registration and improving transplant outcomes for donors, their families and recipients. Over recent years alone, the Foundation has donated more than $5.6 million to further research and raise awareness of the power of organ and tissue donation and transplantation while passionately collaborating with community engagement programs that help inspire people to take action in support of organ and tissue donation.
Currently, more than 106,000 Americans, including 21,000 Californians, are waiting for a donor and the need for transplants is growing faster than potential donors as less than 1% of all deaths qualify for donation. One organ donor can save up to eight lives, one cornea donor can restore sight to two people and one tissue donor can heal as many as 75 others.
The nonprofit OneLegacy is part of the United States’ organ donation network, which is recognized as the best in the world, with the highest deceased donor transplant rate of any country and a donation rate nearly double that of Europe’s. As a result of outreach education efforts spearheaded by OneLegacy and others, the number of people on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ has decreased by 10% over the past five years.
In 2021 OneLegacy enabled the transplant of 1,688 organs from 591 donors. Additionally, more than 155,000 lives were healed through tissue donation and transplantation and 1,037 vision-restoring corneal transplants were made possible thanks to the OneLegacy Eye Bank. Garimella says that “the joint efforts of OneLegacy’s dedicated staff, donors, hospitals and community partners place OneLegacy on track for its eighth consecutive record setting year in the number of lives saved through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation.”
About OneLegacy
OneLegacy is the nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donation in seven counties in Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Kern. It serves more than 200 hospitals, 10 transplant centers, a diverse population of 20 million donors and families across the region and waiting recipients across the country. For more information, visit OneLegacy.org.
