Parents of organ donor urge others to make life-saving donations

JACKSON, Tenn. — Governor Bill Haslam has proclaimed this week DMV Appreciation Week, encouraging drivers to become organ and tissue donors.

City leaders and state officials gathered Monday at the Jackson Driver Services Center to show their gratitude for the work the employees do to save lives by bringing awareness to organ donation.

A Jackson family whose late daughter saved five lives as an organ donor was there to share their experience and help spread the message.

“We became involved with the families and the donor families because they can tell the story for us much better than we can,” said Sharon Pakis, manager of public education/relations for Donate Life Tennessee. “When organ and tissue donation or transplantation touches your family, it becomes much more real.”

The Whitehead family shared their experience after their daughter Sara Beth became an organ donor when she passed away in 2005 from spinal meningitis.

Her mother said it all began in this building when she was studying for her permit test.

“She had already started studying really, really hard for her permit and where she wasn’t going to fail it, and we had talked about, ‘Mom, I want to be an organ donor,” Sara Beth’s mother, Tresa Whitehead, said.

Because of her donation, Sara Beth saved five lives after dying at the age of 14. Though she is gone, her family said encouraging others to donate helps keep her legacy alive.

According to Donate Life Tennessee, 47 Madison County residents received a lifesaving transplant in 2016. Since April 2017, 37 residents are currently waiting for an organ transplant.

To register as an organ and tissue donor, visit DonateLifeTN.org.