Organ donation holds personal significance for Sara Miller, far left in photo, a Process Improvement Analyst at the Mount Sinai Health System, and Nicole Antaya, center in photo, who recently graduated from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. They recently held an organ donor registration drive—seen here with Carolyn Forman, right, Administrative Director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, Mount Sinai Health System—in the Guggenheim lobby to educate people and encourage them to register as donors.
When Ms. Miller was 12, she lost her older sister, Laura, to brain cancer, and her family made the difficult decision to donate Laura’s organs to others in need. As a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis, Ms. Miller started a nonprofit organization, SODA: Student Organ Donation Advocates, which supports student-led organ donation education and registration events. SODA now has 18 chapters at U.S. high schools and colleges. Ms. Antaya, who has cystic fibrosis and underwent a double lung transplant in August 2015, founded a SODA chapter at Quinnipiac. Prior to her transplant, Ms. Antaya’s lung function was at 18 percent capacity and her life was extremely limited. “The ultimate gift of compassion and love, and life and caring—that’s organ donation,” says Ms. Antaya.