Terry Perrotta thinks of her organ donor every day. Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension in 2003, Perrotta was in need of a new lung and the future wasn’t looking optimistic. Her doctor told her she had a year to live and to get her affairs in order. At the time, Perrotta was a single mother with two children; she couldn’t leave them and fought to stay alive.

Perrotta was one of two speakers at Friday’s Have a Heart and Get a Heart event at Cranston City Hall where organ recipients encouraged others to get the heart on their Driver’s License/ID to celebrate Valentine’s Day and National Organ Donor Day.

According to New England Donor Services (NEDS) State Relations Manager Matt Boger who helped facilitate the event, in 2022 there were 1,325 lives saved in New England because of organ donors; this number was a 7.9 percent increase from 2021. NEDS coordinates organ and tissue donation in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, the eastern counties of Vermont and Bermuda. The organization serves thousands of donor families each year. Boger said 22 people die a day waiting for a lifesaving transplant since there are not enough organs to go around and there are currently over 104,300 patients on the U.S. transplant waitlist.

Perrotta could easily have been one of those 22. While she surpassed her one year life expectancy and went on for close to a decade, she started to quickly decline in 2012, resulting in her ex-husband coming to take care of her. A year later, Perrotta went into a coma and was flown on a medical jet from Rhode Island Hospital to Chicago’s Cleveland Clinic with a 2 percent chance of survival. The doctors told her ex-husband there was no hope, however, at 2 a.m. the phone rang and the doctors said they’d found a lung that was an exact match; she received the transplant the next morning. Two years later, she and her husband remarried.

“So if you are wondering whether or not you want to become an organ donor, I am living proof that it works,” Perrotta told event attendees Friday, adding that she’s seen her children grow up and now has a grandchild.

In addition to Perrotta, the audience heard from Rambo Tran who donated part of his liver to his father 10 years ago after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. When an individual donates part of a liver, the remaining portion will regenerate and regain full function. This lifesaving transplant allowed Tran’s dad to survive and live to remarry and see the birth of his grandchildren.

Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Administrator Walter Craddock was present at Friday’s event and shared the easy process of enrolling as an organ donor – the simplest way being through the DMV. Individuals can register when getting or renewing their driver’s license, Real ID or ID.

“All you have to do is check that box and you automatically enroll as an organ donor,” said Craddock.

In America, there are more than 170 million registered organ donors. Still, the number of people who need an organ also continues to rise, which is why Boger said it is crucial to educate our communities about taking action to register as donors.

Transplantations offer patients a chance at healthy, productive and normal lives. Organs that can be donated include the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, intestines and pancreas. Tissue donations include corneas, tendons, valves, veins, skin and bones.

Individuals can also become living donors. For instance, the average wait time for a kidney is three to five years, so a kidney from a living donor offers patients an alternative to years of dialysis and time on the national transplant waiting list. Meanwhile, the living donor’s remaining kidney will enlarge, doing the work of two healthy kidneys. Partial donations can also be done for the lung, intestine and pancreas.

Mayor Ken Hopkins recounted a personal story of a friend who underwent two kidney transplants and is now in need of a third.

“Things like this touch home to all of us in one way or another,” said Hopkins. “Signing up as an organ donor today could save a life for tomorrow.”

Boger added that adding the heart to a person’s license does not affect the care they receive if they are in an accident. It’s only when certain protocols take place at the hospital that organs are harvested. He added that organ donations are very rare.

“You’re actually more likely to need a transplant than become an organ donor,” said Boger.

Boger said organ donation is not about death but about life and continuing your memory and saving someone else’s life. To register to be a donor outside the DMV office or for more information, visit www.RegisterMe.org.