NORFOLK, Va. — Donors and organ recipients celebrated 50 years of kidney transplant services at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Friday.
People came together at the hospital to highlight all the lives doctors have changed with that procedure since 1972.
"It saved my life," Eldrene Copeland said.
She received a kidney donation at the hospital 30 years and five months ago.
"When I first started going to the doctor's, he was telling me my blood count was way off. I had to have a kidney transplant. It took me a while to get on the list. I was very doubtful, but once I got on that list and got my kidney transplant, it was a blessing."
Dr. Harlan Rust is the medical director of the hospital's Kidney Transplant Program. He said there was a lot to be thankful for, at this milestone.
"It takes a lot to get a kidney transplant to happen," Rust said. "This is a way of just sort of celebrating that, because we've done over 2,800 of them here, and that's a lot of kidneys over the last 50 years.
The celebration also took time to thank living and deceased donors, who made the choice to improve other people's lives with their generosity.
To learn more about organ donation, or to sign up to become a donor, click here.