Staff, patients and advocates celebrate the unveiling of a new memorial honoring organ and tissue donors.

A new memorial on the second-floor mezzanine was recently unveiled to honor organ and tissue donors whose gift of life has resulted in critically needed transplants for BWH patients.

The memorial, depicting a tree of life on the wall, was revealed during a brief ceremony on April 11 as part of the Brigham’s activities commemorating Donate Life month. Kathleen Gallivan, SNDden, PhD, director of Spiritual Care Services, led a prayer to express appreciation for and remembrance of all donors.

“The tree represents rebirth, as an organ or tissue donation gives someone a new chance at life,” said Galen Henderson, MD, medical director of Neurocritical Care and the Neuroscience ICU. “I hope people passing by look at it and recognize the Brigham’s history of saving lives with transplantation and the importance of signing up to be a donor.”

More than 119,000 people in the U.S. are on the national transplant waiting list; the number of registered donors is only a fraction of that, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Brad Biscornet, 44, a firefighter and emergency medical technical from Tyngsborough who received a heart transplant at BWH in 2007, attended the unveiling.

“There is no possible way anyone can pay due tribute to the sacrifices that these donors made, but the Donate Life memorial is one small way we can show our gratitude as transplant recipients,” Biscornet said.