OneLegacy’s Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donor Recovery Center Taking Shape at “Topping Out” Ceremony

Published 3 years ago via Business Wire

Azusa Location to Serve as “Critical Connector” for Southern California’s Regional Healthcare System and Help Save and Heal Lives Through Donation

Surrounded by local officials, transplant recipients, donor families and healthcare professionals, OneLegacy has held a “topping out” ceremony for its new state-of-the-art headquarters in Azusa that will serve as a critical connector for Southern California’s regional healthcare system.

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OneLegacy’s leadership and board of directors are joined by the Mayor of Azusa and other city officials in celebrating the “topping out” of OneLegacy’s organ, eye and tissue Donor Recovery Center that will serve as a critical connector for Southern California’s regional healthcare system by improving donation and transplantation for all. (Photo: Business Wire)

OneLegacy’s leadership and board of directors are joined by the Mayor of Azusa and other city officials in celebrating the “topping out” of OneLegacy’s organ, eye and tissue Donor Recovery Center that will serve as a critical connector for Southern California’s regional healthcare system by improving donation and transplantation for all. (Photo: Business Wire)

When open next year, this facility will build on the success of OneLegacy’s Redlands Recovery Center that has helped increase lives saved and healed by some 15% since it opened in 2018. The Azusa Donor Recovery Center will triple OneLegacy’s recovery capacity and by doing so enable OneLegacy to serve even better all 215 hospitals and 10 transplant centers in its seven-county region as well as transplant surgeons from around the country. The Center will also provide a new home for critical research that will improve donation and transplantation for all.

Working in partnership with all of Southern California’s hospitals and local coroners’ offices, the not-for-profit OneLegacy is the bridge to life for nearly 20 million Southern Californians and waiting recipients nationwide. The new offices, to be located at 1303 West Optical Drive in Azusa, “reflects the tremendous growth OneLegacy has achieved over recent years while providing the space and resources, and most of all state-of-the art diagnostic, telemedicine and surgical capabilities needed for us to save and heal even more lives through donation,” said OneLegacy CEO Tom Mone.

Last year alone, thanks to the generosity of so many, OneLegacy enabled the transplant of a record-setting 1,661 organs from 548 donors, marking the sixth consecutive year of record-breaking increases in lifesaving and healing organ donation and transplantation. OneLegacy also led the nation in lung transplants and had a record setting year in heart transplants. In addition, more than 190,000 lives were healed, and their vision was restored through tissue and cornea donation in 2020; a number especially impressive given the COVID-caused ban on elective procedures.

OneLegacy acquired the 4.45-acre Azusa property in 2019. Its centerpiece is a 98,000-square-foot, three-story commercial building which OneLegacy has been upgrading to accommodate its administrative, Foundation and clinical operational needs. In addition, OneLegacy is building an additional 50,000-square-foot structure that will connect to the existing building and will house a state-of-the-art transplant recovery and research center along with a 16,000-square-foot conferencing space.

Also to be housed in the new facility is the OneLegacy Foundation that has helped champion and improve organ, eye, and tissue donation and transplantation through public education and scientific research aimed at increasing donor registration and improving transplant outcomes for donors, their families and recipients. Over the past three years alone, the Foundation has donated more than $5.6 million to further research and raise awareness of the power of organ and tissue donation and transplantation while passionately collaborating with community engagement programs that help inspire people to take action in support of organ and tissue donation.

OneLegacy is part of the United States’ organ donation network, which is recognized as the best in the world, with the highest deceased donor transplant rate of any country and a donation rate nearly double that of Europe’s. As a result of outreach education efforts spearheaded by OneLegacy and others, the number of people on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ has decreased by 10% over the past five years.

“While we honor and celebrate all that has been accomplished, there is much work to be done,” said Mone. “More than 107,000 Americans including 21,000 Californians and 8,500 people at the OneLegacy donation service area transplant centers, are still waiting for a donor and the need for transplants is growing far faster than potential donors as less than 1% of all deaths qualify for donation.”

The opportunity to donate and to receive a lifesaving transplant knows no national, racial, ethnic or religious boundaries, nor sexual orientation. One organ donor can save up to eight lives, and one tissue donor can help as many as 75 others heal. “You can save the life of a neighbor, parent or friend, or someone you don’t even know, by registering to be a donor at your local DMV or by visiting donateLIFEcalifornia.org/OneLegacy,” says Mone.

For more information, visit OneLegacy.org, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. To register to become an organ, eye or tissue donor, visit OneLegacy.org/Register.

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