Our commitment to the Dash for Donation is rooted in the Christmas season more than nine years ago. Margaret, who was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease at age 21, was in her twenty-sixth month of peritoneal kidney dialysis. We completed a nightly dialysis procedure using a machine called the “cycler.” We were trained in its use, connecting, disconnecting, and draining, and we became accustomed to its many beeps, buzzes, and occasional alarms throughout a 10-hour per night process.

Margaret at the Dash for Donation

On December 29, we received “the call” and Margaret was told that she was designated as the primary recipient for a kidney. The OSU Wexner Medical Center team was amazing in care and preparation of Margaret in a short and well-orchestrated time frame from arrival to transplant surgery to recovery. The surgery went well, and there was an immediate, dramatic change in how healthy she felt and looked; suddenly she was so full of life!

We feel so fortunate and blessed to have this life changing and saving kidney, the “Gift of Life” from a donor family whose courageous and generous decision at the saddest time in their life allowed Margaret and several others to have a healthy life once again.

This gift gave Margaret good health, freedom from daily dialysis treatments, and renewed our lives and uplifted our spirits.

Margaret has been able to oversee and help with the many needs of our disabled daughter; exercise our two Labradors; take our grandchildren to fireworks in the summer and the pumpkin patch and haunted forest in the fall; and cheer for the Buckeyes and her six-time Super Bowl champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While never seeing herself as an athlete, Margaret surprised herself and has competed in four National Transplant Games as a 5K walker, bowler in team and individual competition, breast and backstroke swimmer, and badminton player!

We volunteer with Lifeline of Ohio to promote organ and tissue donation and honor donor families. As Buckeye GIFT support group members, we enjoy meeting and socializing with fellow transplant recipients and donor families, and visit with new transplant patients and the OSU transplant team through Halloween, Christmas caroling, Valentine, and summer kickoff activities.

Margaret's race bib

It has been a joy and inspiration to see the Dash for Donation grow through the years from a few hundred participants to more than 3,300 in 2011. It is a wonderful opportunity to promote organ, eye, and tissue donation by showcasing the “Gift of Life” in a sea of green T-shirts running and walking through downtown Columbus.

For all of the transplant recipients, it is our live “Thank-You” card to our donor heroes and their families; a time for meeting, hugging, sharing, and socializing… a truly sincere celebration of life. 

Serving on the Dash for Donation committee is our small way of giving back and putting the “Gift of Life” in action!

- Margaret and Phil Petrosky, Columbus, Ohio

On behalf of Donate Life Ohio, Lifeline of Ohio presented the 2011 “Organ, Tissue and Eye Donation Front Line Awards” to BMV Deputy Registrar locations with the highest organ, eye and tissue donation registration rates or greatest improvement in their BMV District.

These awards were as much a commendation of the generosity and compassion of central and southeastern Ohioans as they were to the outstanding commitment of the BMV Deputy Registrar Locations that serve them.

Lifeline of Ohio is proud to recognize the following agencies for their outstanding work:

The Hayden Road BMV receives the "Best in State" award for the eighth year!

The Hayden Rd. (Columbus) BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Best in the State” award for achieving a donor registration rate of 72.9 percent in 2011.

The Pickerington BMV is named "Best in District"

The Pickerington BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Best in District 2” award for achieving a donor registration rate of 66 percent in 2011.

The Kenny Road BMV Receives the "Best in District" Award

The Kenny Rd. (Columbus) BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Best in District 5” award for achieving a donor registration rate of 70.7 percent in 2011.

The Jackson BMV is named "Most Improved in State of Ohio"

 The Jackson BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Most Improved in the State of Ohio” award for improving their donor registration rate from 43.2 percent in 2010 to 46.8 percent in 2011, a 7.71 percent increase.

The Logan BMV receives the "Most Improved in District" Award

The Logan BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Most Improved in District 2” award for improving their donor registration rate from 49.8 percent in 2010 to 53.7 percent in 2011, an increase of 7.27 percent.

The Shelby BMV receives the "Most Improved in District" Award

The Shelby BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Most Improved in District 4” award for improving their donor registration rate from 55.5 percent in 2010 to 59.5 percent in 2011, an increase of 6.67 percent.

The Johnstown BMV receives the "Most Improved in District" Award

The Johnstown BMV Deputy Registrar Location received the “Most Improved in District 5” award for improving their donor registration rate from 59 percent in 2010 to 63.4 percent in 2011, an increase of 6.91 percent.

Thank you to all of our BMV partners who ensure that every Ohioan is asked if they would like to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor when renewing a license or and state ID.  The majority of Ohioans register as donors at the BMV, but did you know you don’t have to wait to sign up?  You can go online right now and join the Ohio Donor Registry!

February 10, 1999 changed my life. I was relaxing at home when my mother called me and said she was hearing sirens and she felt it in her heart that something had happened to my brother, Greg. I thought to myself there was no way, that Greg was okay, but at the same time I had to go to her.

I didn’t even change out of my pajamas and within ten minutes I was with my mom walking to the intersection at the top of her street. There were people everywhere, firetrucks, police cars and an ambulance taking my brother away. He had been racing home to catch the second half of the Buckeyes basketball game and he had been hit by a car.

My sweet brother, Greg

We followed the ambulance to Riverside Methodist Hospital where we waited. Greg was quickly moved to the Neuro Intensive Care Unit. He looked fine, like he was just sleeping, but the nurses and doctor explained that when he was struck he landed on the back of his head and he was brain dead.

I hated them for saying that, he could not be brain dead and even if he was we could keep him on machines, right? No. This could not happen to my family. For the first time in my life I fully understood the term ‘heartbroken.’ I could feel my heart breaking into a million pieces. I was mad, hurt, scared. I began to bargain with God to bring him back. My brother’s life was over and I was selfishly crying because I would never get to hug him or laugh with him or even argue with him again.

My family members held each other, trying to get a grasp on what was happening, when we were approached with the question of organ and tissue donation.

How many times have we heard after someone has died that they were the most giving, loving person? Greg was. He would and did literally give the coat off his back to a homeless man out in the cold. He would take time and converse with the people that most would cross the street to avoid. He took time to befriend those who were deemed societal rejects and found the beauty in what made them different. I was always so proud of the way he gave of himself, not tangible items, but himself. He loved sharing and it made him happy. Even as children he would let me go through his Easter basket to pick out the jelly beans I wanted. He was talented and gifted in so many ways but helping someone in need and making their life a little bit better was his greatest of gifts.

Yes, of course we would donate. He would be so proud to know that his final gift was the ultimate gift of life. This was the first moment where I felt my heart coming back together.

Greg & me

We asked only for the time to get my large family and Greg’s friends together to say goodbye. My family was united in agreement with the decision to donate and the idea was embraced by everyone who knew and loved my brother.

The nurse, Diana,  who stayed with us until we said our final goodbye was an angel on earth. She had a brother who was an organ donor and she answered all of our questions.

My younger sisters had a close friend whose grandfather was on dialysis and was waiting on a kidney. We asked Diana if we could help him even though he was in Florida? Was it possible? Yes.

There are no words to describe calling a man who’s life is jeopardy and telling him that we wanted to give him my brother’s kidney. He got on that plane and within hours the transplant took place.

 Thirteen years later he is doing great. He is spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren. Living life as he should, but was not allowed due to the constraints of a dialysis machine. Countless lives were changed that day because of Greg. I don’t know who would be more proud, me or him.

I have always been an organ donor but to be honest I had never really thought about it much before that night. Who wants to think about such tragedy? Human nature dictates that we divert such thoughts. When you have to face such a tragedy you are initiated into the club that no one wants to be in. I can tell you as a member of this club that the ONLY way to make any sense of a tragedy of this magnitude is via organ and tissue donation. It gives you focus. It allows you relieve yourself of the execrable feeling that your loved ones life was wasted.

Greg’s final gift was more than the lives he saved and touched, he gave me the best gift I have ever received. His gift to me is the sense of peace that he is living on. I see this same feeling in the eyes of other organ donor family members that I know. When I see the gratitude in the eyes of organ recipients I can’t help but get a warm feeling in my heart. There is an unpoken communication between donor families and recipients that a delivers a very clear message of appreciation beyond words. I guess to me it is just another aspect to the meaning of the circle of life.

We cannot control what life deals us and as my dad says, ‘nothing in life is fair.’ Is it fair to lose a loved one? No. Is it fair to suffer through dialysis, impaired vision or blindness, heart problems (this list unfortunately goes on and on)? No. Is it a wonderful feeling helping someone in such great need? YES. I can attest that YES it is a wonderful feeling to celebrate my sweet brother Greg.

I was going through my DVR this weekend when I realized I had not yet watched the episode of “Private Practice” from April 24. I can’t get enough of the inner office drama that occurs at the small practice in California.

In this episode, a young girl was brought into the ER following a tragic stabbing. The doctors at St. Ambrose Hospital worked tirelessly to save the little girl’s life, however, they are unsuccessful.

Following a neurological exam, it is determined that the girl had died. The family was told that brain death had occurred. Everything about this episode was good thus far, but this is when my frustration began to arise.

The TV doctors did not accurately explain brain death.

Brain death is defined as the irreversible loss of all function of the brain including the brain stem. Brain death is final, a person cannot recover. It is legally, medically and ethically death. However, the show portrayed it as though the family needed to make the decision to discontinue further medical care. Sadly, this is not the case when brain death has occurred. There are not more decisions about care to be made, as the person has died.

After having some time to accept what has occurred, the father in the show suggested organ donation. He said that he wants his daughter’s tragic, untimely death to mean something. He asked the doctor if donating her organs will mean something.

At this point I start to like the show again, the doctor responded without hesitation and says that yes, organ donation means something. She went on to say that it means so very much to so many people, especially those whose lives will be saved.

The message about the importance of organ donation is real. The donation of organs following a person’s death means something indescribable to the recipients and also to the donor’s family. Organ donation can be the one positive that comes out of such a painful loss of a loved one.

I am happy that “Private Practice” focused on the importance of organ donation, but I do wish it had explained the process more accurately. There are many myths about organ donation, and unfortunately we see them on TV shows a lot.  Misinformation often prevents people from registering as donors, so get all of the facts about organ, tissue and eye donation by clicking here.  Then register to be a donor!

- Erin Henry, community educator

Facebook users now have the ability to share their organ donor status.

The organ donor “life event” option on is a breakthrough in organ and tissue donation awareness!  With about half of Americans on Facebook, a click of a mouse has the potential to reach millions who many not have considered organ donation.

We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook

“What we hope will happen is that by just having this simple tool, we think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends,” Zuckerberg told Good Morning America. “That can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there.”

Zuckerberg shared in a blog that the team at Facebook has seen the “power of friends” in response to other world crises and they “believe that by simply telling people that you’re an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role” in saving lives.

Sharing your donor status is easy.  On your Facebook profile, click “Life Event” then “Health and Welness” and “Organ Donor.”  You can then share when you registered as a donor or, if you haven’t signed up yet, find your local donor registry to join the 100+ million Americans who have said yes to organ and tissue donation.

We’d like to thank the Facebook team for this exciting step toward registering more organ and tissue donors in the U.S.  If you haven’t yet taken the steps to register in Ohio, do it NOW!  Then share your decision with your Facebook friends and inspire others to action.