A Pennsylvania woman made history after becoming the state’s oldest organ donor and the US’s third-oldest after her death at age 97, according to a report.
Peggy Fields decided to become an organ donor later in life — and marked state history by giving the gift of her liver to a woman in Florida after her death, WTAE reported.
Fields was a “lifelong volunteer” who spent much of her life in Pittsburgh helping her church, community, historical societies, and as a Girl Scout leader, her daughter, Linda Kirk, told the local outlet.
“She was always volunteering and giving, so this was her final way to give. That’s what I think,” Kirk said. “It makes me very proud.”
“That’s something that everybody should know — that you don’t have to be a young spring chicken to donate something, that you can be 97 and donate something to somebody who really needs it,” Kirk said.
The Center for Organ Recovery and Education told the publication that Fields’s heroic choice shows that it’s a myth that people can be simply too old to donate their organs.
“The oldest is actually a 100-year-old now from Nebraska, but Peggy holds the distinction of being Pennsylvania’s oldest donor, the oldest female donor in history, and the third-oldest donor in history just altogether,” Katelynn Metz, of CORE, said.
“They want to know that the last thing they do in their life would be to do something for somebody else, and to give their own families this legacy. They just think that they’re too old,” Metz said.
People of all ages can be organ donors in the US, and doctors decide when you die if your organs are viable for donation, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
In 2021, one out of every three people who donated organs was over 50, according to statistics from the National Institute on Aging.
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