In Photos: Sculpture Honors Legacy of Organ Donation

 

The sculpture stands more than 5 feet tall and is a replica of the stone-sculpted candle on display in the Circle of Life Irish National Organ Donor Commemorative Garden in Galway, Ireland.
The event took place in the Rotunda, next to the glass display case that holds the Nobel Prize given to Dr. Joseph E. Murray who completed the world’s first successful human organ transplant in 1954.
From left: Irish Consul-General Fionnuala Quinlan chats with BWH patient and transplant recipient Eileen Sullivan.
The statue is accompanied by a stone tablet whose engraving reads, “In appreciation of those who have given the gift of new life to others through organ donation and to celebrate the universality of this life-giving cause. Gifted in friendship by the citizens of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to their sister city, Boston and its people in recognition of its unique contributions to the science and practice of organ donation and transplantation.”
Kerrie Ike, whose brother Kevin Sullivan was an organ donor, places an LED candle in front of the new sculpture.
From left: Belfast City Councilor Adam Newton; Sayeed Khan Malek, MD, director of BWH Transplant Surgery; Irish Consul-General Fionnuala Quinlan; Kerrie Ike; Virginia “Ginny” Murray, daughter of Dr. Murray; BWH patient and transplant recipient Eileen Sullivan
In honor of the Brigham’s legacy of leadership and innovation in organ transplantation, BWH was recently selected as one of five sites around the world to receive a candle monument commemorating organ donors and their families. Donated by Boston’s Sister City of Belfast, Ireland, the Irish limestone sculpture was recently installed in front of Stoneman Centennial Park. On Nov. 30, BWHers celebrated the gift and spoke about the importance of organ donation during a ceremony with representatives from the City of Boston, Belfast, New England Donor Services (NEDS), an organ donor’s family, a BWH lung transplant recipient and other community members.
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