Virginia Transplant Center at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital unveils donor memorial sculpture

Henrico Doctors’ Hospital’s Virginia Transplant Center, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of its kidney transplant program this year, Sept. 17 unveiled a donor memorial sculpture.

The LifeNet Health Foundation provided grant funding for the Reflections of Life memorial at the hospital. As one of 58 federally designated organ procurement organizations, LifeNet Health coordinates organ donation throughout most of Virginia and part of West Virginia. The Virginia Transplant Center at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital is one of four transplant hospitals that LifeNet serves across the Central Virginia community, including: VCU, UVA and Sentara Norfolk General.

For more than 30 years, The Virginia Transplant Center has provided patients around the country with kidney transplants, living kidney donations and paired exchange kidney transplants. Of the more than 1,300 kidney transplant procedures performed to date, 484 of those transplants came from living donors.

The Virginia Transplant Center’s kidney transplant referral patients average 90 days from referral to listing, which becomes life-saving time for patients and families. Advances in the field of transplantation have made living kidney transplants a successful treatment option for patients with chronic kidney disease or renal failure.

As a part of the kidney transplant process, kidneys are removed from living donors using minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, which allows for a faster, less painful recovery. A transplant coordinator guides all living donors through the entire process, from evaluation through surgery and follow-up.

The Reflections of Life memorial was designed and created by local Richmond artist, Austin Warner, owner of Trouble Dog Art. Inspired by a family member who received a life-saving liver transplant, Warner designed a piece of art that depicts the opportunity for the public to reflect on the gifts of donors and donor families, while providing hope to those in need of a transplant.

The memorial is being displayed inside Henrico Doctors’ Hospital and can be viewed around the corner from the Emergency Department, across from the Critical Care Elevators. The memorial is visible from both inside and outside of the hospital windows.