Colorado Springs Gazette | 'It's kind of magical': Organ recipient helps UCHealth kick off National Donate Life Month
When Jeremy Mares applied for a driver’s license at 16, he registered to be an organ and tissue donor, thinking that he might one day be able to save someone’s life, he said. “Little did I know that 19 years later, someone else’s ‘Yes’ would save mine,’” Mares said. In March 2018, Mares was admitted into UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital’s intensive-care unit with acute liver failure caused by a rare copper-metabolism disorder called Wilson’s Disease. Just three weeks after being admitted into the ICU, Mares walked out of the hospital with a new liver. “You hear horror stories about people who wait forever to get a liver,” he said. “For me, the process was pretty fast.” On Wednesday, Mares joined UCHealth employees and organ donation advocates at Memorial Hospital Central for a flag-raising ceremony to signal the beginning of National Donate Life Month.