Each April, the United States recognizes National Donate Life Month, bringing attention to organ, eye, bone marrow and tissue donation and transplantation.

Intermountain Health is joining other health systems and transplant programs across the country in celebrating Donate Life Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about the critical need for organ donors and honoring the selfless individuals who have given the gift of life.

“Donate Life Month is a good time to share with your family your decision to be a donor, check the organ donor box when you renew your driver’s license, and consider the healing gift of sharing a living organ through the gift of transplantation,” said Brian Cook, MD, Intermountain Health transplant surgeon. “The impact of organ donation extends far beyond the recipients, positively affecting their families and their communities.”

In fact, organ transplantation saves over 28,000 lives each year and every donor has the potential to save up to eight lives.

Across the country, 100,000 people are currently on the transplant list, waiting for a kidney, liver, pancreas, heart or lungs. Every nine minutes another person is added to the wait list and every day 13 people die waiting for a transplant.

In Utah, more than 900 people are on that waiting list.

Intermountain Health is a premier organ transplant provider in the Intermountain West, providing heart, kidney, liver, pancreas and bone marrow transplants to people in need across the region.

“The generosity of our community has been instrumental in saving hundreds of lives,” said Dr. Cook. “Their willingness to say, ‘Yes,’ to organ donation has been a cornerstone of our success.”

The Intermountain Health Adult Transplant program, based at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, transplanted 489 organs in 2024 – 189 liver, 267 kidney, 29 heart, and 4 kidney/pancreas. This is a growth of over 200% over the last five years and with this more than twice as many lives in the Mountain West have been saved.

These organ transplants profoundly impacted and transformed the lives of hundreds, thanks to short wait times and utilization of new technology, which allows for greater access for those in need of an organ, even those living hundreds of miles away.

In fact, Intermountain Health’s kidney transplant program has one of the shortest wait-times in the nation, averaging just three months to a year from active listing to transplant, compared to many other programs in the country that have wait times that average 3-5 years.

Intermountain’s liver transplant program also boasts one of the shortest wait times in the nation, with a median wait time to transplant after listing of 22 days.

Intermountain performs living kidney and liver donor transplants to patients, helping reduce the amount of time they spend waiting for an organ.

Living Donation

Living donations saves thousands of lives each year. Living donation is when a living person donates an organ or part of an organ to a person in need of a transplant.

Living kidney donation is possible because people can live a healthy life with one functioning kidney.

Living liver donation is possible because the liver consists of two lobes, one of which can be donated to someone in need. Both lobes will regenerate to normal size and function generally within 6-12 weeks.

“Every living donor transplant that occurs removes one person from the transplant waiting list and ensures that the next person on the list won’t have to wait as long for a deceased donor transplant, said Donald Morris, MD, nephrologist and Intermountain Health’s kidney transplant medical director. “Living donor kidneys also tend to have greater longevity than those transplanted from a deceased donor - greatly improving the recipient’s quality of life.”

National Kidney Registry

Intermountain’s Transplant Services at Intermountain Medical Center participates in the Kidney for Life program with the National Kidney Registry, which helps get the best optimally matched organ donors and recipients across the nation.

The Kidney for Life program is a unique nationwide organ donor exchange program that facilitates paired exchanges, a process in which an organ donor donates their kidney to a recipient other than their loved one in exchange for a compatible kidney for their friend or loved one.

In 2024, more than 7,000 transplant were made possible by living donation.

“Living donors are true heroes,” said JoAnna Stephens, Intermountain Health adult transplant director. “We celebrate and honor these heroes for their incredible generosity, selfless acts of kindness, and life-saving contributions.”

Become a Live Organ Donor – Save a Live

To sign up to become a living organ donor go to: www.IntermountainHealthcare.org/DonateLife

Don’t forget to share with your family your decision to share the gift of life. And don’t forget to check the organ donation box when you renew your license or go to the Yes Utah! website to register today.

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NOTE TO MEDIA: Images and video available upon request. 
 

A teen from Annabella, Utah is heading back to school and sports after a rare, second kidney transplant, with an altruistic kidney donor-turned-friend, and help from caregivers from Intermountain Sevier Valley Hospital who went above and beyond to bring pediatric dialysis services to the hospital to help the high school student survive and thrive.

Intermountain Sevier Valley Hospital coordinated with Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital to bring pediatric dialysis to its campus to help 17-year-old Richfield High swim and South Sevier tennis student athlete Henry Coulter get the life-saving care he needed close to home.

Now, thanks to the organ transplant that helped save his life and the support of Intermountain Sevier Valley Hospital and the community, Henry celebrated his first plunge in the Richfield pool this month and will start workouts with the Richfield High swim team this fall.

“We have had lots of ups and lots of downs throughout Henry’s health journey, and this year has had some amazing ups because of his organ donor and the pediatric nephrologists who have made sure he had all that he needed,” said Henry’s mom, Alisa Coulter. “I can’t say it enough, how much we appreciate them.”

Henry was 15 months old when he got sick with pneumonia. He then developed the rare disease atypical HUS, a strep infection that typically affects children up to age 3.

The childhood vaccine preventing the disease hadn’t been developed yet, and the infection attacked Henry’s liver, lungs, and pancreas, and put him at risk for stroke.

Henry got well, but his kidneys never recovered. He got a kidney transplant at age 2, with his dad, Matthew, as the organ donor.

The Coulters knew Henry would need a second transplant by the time Henry reached adulthood.

Henry’s kidneys steadily lost function as he grew. When his kidney function dropped to just 24 percent, doctors put him on the transplant list waiting for a deceased donor, as planned.

They hoped a donor kidney would become available in a year or so, without Henry needing dialysis.

Unfortunately, Henry got sick with flu last December. In January, on his first day of work as a lifeguard at the Richfield pool, he had intense stomach pain.

He ended up hospitalized, and in kidney failure. He left the hospital on dialysis and needed a kidney transplant within six months.

Dialysis required a 4 a.m. start to the day, three times a week, and drive to Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, 165 miles away from his town of Annabella, which has fewer than 900 residents.

Treatments impacted Henry mentally, educationally, and emotionally.

He couldn’t be in crowds and was frequently exhausted. He had to switch to online schooling. He was missing out on life and relationships. He couldn’t swim because of the dialysis catheter, and instead watched from the stands as his team competed in the state meet.

"Henry is an incredible young man, but having to travel to Salt Lake from Richfield for dialysis three days a week would take a toll on anyone," said Stephanie Baker, dialysis supervisor at Intermountain Sevier Valley Hospital.

The Intermountain Sevier Valley Dialysis team wanted to help Henry get back to the life that he had previously enjoyed, so they went to work to make it happen.

"Since he was only 16, we had to work with Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital to obtain the equipment and training needed to provide dialysis care for Henry so he could receive treatment here in our community,” Baker noted.

It was a first for Intermountain Sevier Valley Hospital, and a success.

Henry was able to continue playing with his tennis team at South Sevier High, which lifted his spirits. Now, Sevier Valley Hospital will be a care home base for Henry and other children in the community who need dialysis in the future.

“Intermountain Primary Children’s and Intermountain Sevier Valley Hospital made it easy-peasy for Henry,” his mom said.

“The pediatric nephrologists are more than just doctors to Henry,” she added. “They have known him since he was small. They joke and tease with him, and truly are a care team for him. They have literally revived him back to life, and had sleepless nights as we have called them for help, and kept him alive through many hospital stays. I’m so glad they were able to bring this level of care to Sevier Valley for Henry.”

Still, Henry needed a kidney transplant. Despite his community’s rally in search of a donor, there was no match.

But in a city 150 miles away in Draper, Utah, soon-to-be retired Army National Guard Major Monica Leger was looking for a child to donate her kidney to and help save a life.

Leger had been thinking about donating for about five years. And with her Guard retirement date in sight, she knew everything was aligning to make her wish a reality.

She approached the University of Utah to become an altruistic donor for a child.

“I had two kidneys, and I didn’t need both,” Leger said. “I donated because I could.”

On transplant day, Henry didn’t know who his donor was, or whether they’d ever meet.

He made a thank-you gift basket of the foods he wanted to eat post-transplant, like chocolate milk, potato chips, Takis and dried mangoes; the foods he was eating on the “kidney diet,” including Fig newtons, Cranberry Juice, and candy; and a personalized blanket.

Leger was in her hospital room after surgery, on her 45th birthday, when Henry’s gift arrived. Her birthday was now Henry’s transplant birthday.

"The retirement honors time, the birthday marks time, the kidney donation gives time,” Leger said. “I’m glad Henry will now be here to make those big lifetime decisions.”

Henry recalls waking up from surgery with a rush of energy he’d never experienced before. “I seriously I sat up and asked if I could stand up because I was feeling so energized, even after anesthesia,” he said. “There was no grogginess at all. It was crazy how different I felt with a working kidney.”

As fate would have it, Henry’s family and Leger have become friends.

In July, Henry celebrated his 17th birthday at Leger’s retirement party. Leger has challenged Henry to a push-up contest, reminding him that she gave him a great kidney that got her through two boot-camps and a couple of marathons.

Henry starts his senior year at South Sevier High this week, and is well enough to continue his athletic co-op with Richfield High, where he is on the swim team. The first week of August, he was healed up and safe to swim again.

He came back to the Lifeguard job he had for just one day before getting sick. He’ll have his first Richfield High Swim Team workout in September, which his mom calls his “full-circle moment.” His tennis game is getting stronger.

Now, he hopes his story can inspire others to become organ donors and save lives.

“Organ donation is safe, and the donor means everything to people like me,” Henry said. “It’s someone who would sacrifice some of their own body to help another person. Monica has been a big inspiration to other people – even my uncle decided to become an organ donor because of her. I just hope our story brings to light how much of a difference living donors can make to people who need it.”

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NOTE TO MEDIA: Images and video available upon request.