More than 10,000 New Yorkers are currently waiting for organ transplants, and every 18 hours one dies waiting for a lifesaving transplant.

Stony Brook Medicine and Stony Brook University took the lead in changing this situation by participating in the first Organ Donor Enrollment Day on October 6, 2015. Volunteers on both sides of campus shared information and encouraged people to consider becoming an organ donor.

Students are Stony Brook University learned about becoming a registered organ donor.

During Organ Donor Enrollment Day, hundreds of students, faculty, staff and neighbors stopped by information tables at Stony Brook University Hospital , Stony Brook University and Smith Haven Mall to signup as organ donors.

There was a total of 518 new organ registrations which the potential of saving more than 4,000 lives. “Organ transplantation is truly a gift of life,” said Kenneth Kaushansky, MS, MACP, Senior Vice President, Health Sciences and Dean, Stony Brook School of Medicine.

LiveOnNY (formerly the New York Organ Donor Network) recognized the success of the effort with awards for Stony Brook in two categories: most enrollments in a hospital with a transplant center and most enrollments in a college.