Flag-raising at Ochsner honors organ 'donor heroes'

You have to believe Alanna Sloane, a teacher of Wyandotte Elementary second-graders and married mother of two daughters, is often on the run. And more than three years ago, running was in her plans.
Sloane was training for a marathon. But she became ill with COVID, and her recovery was slow. She didn’t have the old energy. And then her eyes took on a yellow color.
Sloane was suffering from autoimmune hepatitis, a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the liver. Her condition worsened until she was taken to a New Orleans hospital by ambulance. After spending days in an induced coma, Sloane received the liver transplant that saved her life.
She was among those who gathered Tuesday for a flag-raising at Ochsner St. Mary. Transplant recipients attended along with representatives of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency and the Southern Eye Bank. The blue and white flag bears the words “donor heroes.”
“March 1 is like my new birthday,” Sloane told the crowd. “I got a second chance at life.”
April is National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Month. According to the Donate Life organization, 2,089 Louisiana people are on lists awaiting organs for transplant. Nationally, a patient is placed on a waiting list every 10 seconds, and 8,000 people die each year while awaiting transplants.
Sloane counts herself among the lucky ones. Sick as she was, and having been cut off from anyone except husband Joey because of COVID, she spent only three days on a transplant list.
Her life now is normal, except that she takes anti-rejection medication and can’t eat raw food.
“It’s good to be in a small town,” Sloane said. “You get the prayers and support. Everybody knows your name.”
Morgan City Councilman Lou Tamporello also counts himself fortunate. He lost a kidney to cancer in 2000, and years later developed liver disease.
Thirteen years ago, Tamporello was placed on lists to await liver and kidney transplants. He spent waiting only three days before the procedure was performed at Ochsner in New Orleans.
“Some people wait years,” Tamporello said.
He thanked his doctors and his chief caregiver, his wife Mary.
The wait was longer for another Morgan City resident, Charlie Solar Sr. He suffered from liver disease and spent a year on a transplant list, although he didn’t know he was on the list for much of that time.
Then, on Nov. 4, 2022, the call came.
Solar had sat down with a bowl of oatmeal.
“They called and said I had to be there,” Solar said. “I said, ‘I just got my food. Could I get just a bite?’
“She said, no, no, no, you’ve got to get here.”
His liver transplant was performed at Ochsner in New Orleans.
Neither Soane, Tamporello nor Solar knows anything about the people whose organ donations saved their lives. They may be unknown, but they’re not forgotten.
“That’s bothered him more than anything else,” Solar’s wife Helen said. “That somebody died to give their organs.”
To become an organ donor, you can express your yes-or-no wishes on the back of your Louisiana driver’s license. You can also join a donor registry maintained by Donate Life America at donatelife.net.
Joyce Fragola of the Southern Eye Bank in Metairie said it’s important for donors to tell family members about their intention to donate.