UNC Donate Life Concert raises awareness about need for organ and tissue donors

UNC junior Kara Thio was just weeks old when she had to undergo a liver transplant.

Thio, who was born with a liver disease called biliary atresia, said she owes her life to a family that made a selfless decision in a tragic time.

“I’m here because of people who make decisions for people they don’t even know,” she said.

For the past 14 years, Thio has been volunteering with Carolina Donor Services, an organization that raises awareness about the need for organ and tissue donors.

In its biggest event of the year, Carolina Donor Services partnered with the Eshelman School of Pharmacy to hold the third annual UNC Donate Life Month Concert on Sunday afternoon.

The concert featured UNC a cappella groups The Loreleis, The Walk-Ons and The Achordants. American Idol finalist Adam Lee Decker also performed. Various tables offered free food, T-shirts and the opportunity to register as an organ and tissue donor during the event.

Thio, a 20-year-old psychology major, said she originally suffered from severe complications as a result of her transplant — including a collapsed lung — and had to spend much of her first three years in the hospital.

“I can’t even imagine what my family had to go through,” Thio said. “I just got to benefit from the aftermath so a lot of credit goes to my mom and my whole family.”

Thio was one of several organ donor recipients who spoke at Sunday’s event.

Karen Rosner, 49, underwent her first of six open heart surgeries at just nine weeks old.

“They told my parents I wouldn’t live to see my first birthday, but here I am,” Rosner said in her speech to the crowd. She received a heart transplant at the Duke University Medical Center in 2006 and hasn’t had any complications.

“That donation created a ripple effect,” Rosner said. “My parents didn’t have to lose another child, my son didn’t have to grow up with just his father and my friends didn’t have to lose a friend. And now I can speak and educate people.”

Danielle Schlafer, a second-year pharmacy school student who volunteered at the event, said many people don’t realize how easy it is to become a donor.

“Anyone can sign up at any age or with any kind of medical condition,” Schlafer said. “We just had a 12-year-old girl register as a donor.”

Taylor Anderton, the community relations coordinator for Carolina Donor Services, said hosting the concert at UNC was like preaching to the choir.

“When you come to a university environment with educated students, many of them are already donors,” Anderton said. “But we want to generate conversations where maybe they’ll go home and tell their parents or their neighbors about donating.”

Anderton, a graduate of UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said the main goal of Carolina Donor Services is to encourage people of all ages to register as organ donors.

“We want to promote and emphasize the heroic gift of life.”

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.