Regional Organ Donors Saved 872 Lives, Tissue Donations Reached 1,426 in 2025

The number that reframes the entire organ donation conversation: 1,426 tissue donors in Network for Hope's multi-state service region in 2025, with the organization estimating those donations could contribute to healing for roughly 107,000 people. Bone, skin, heart valves and corneas reach patients in ways the organ-transplant headline rarely captures, and Adams County's participation in that referral network put the county inside one of the most productive donation years in the organization's history.

Network for Hope coordinates organ, tissue and eye donation across 136 counties in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, connecting 164 hospitals and six transplant centers. The organization was formed in late 2024 from the merger of two legacy procurement organizations, LifeCenter and KODA, and its first full operating year produced a record: 299 organ donors from across the service area saved 872 lives through transplantation, nearly three lives per donor. The organization also added 155,000 new registrants to donor rolls during the year.

Adams County Regional Medical Center, the county's only hospital, is among those 164 hospital partners. Local referral partners also include funeral directors and county coroners, who notify Network for Hope when a potential donor is identified. For Adams County residents, that local referral step is what connects a neighbor's registration decision to a transplant patient in Columbus or Cincinnati.

The single biggest obstacle to registration is not indifference — it is a myth. The most persistent misconception keeping people from signing up is the belief that doctors will work less aggressively to save a registered donor in an emergency. When you go to the hospital for treatment, the health care team tries to save your life, not someone else's. The organ procurement process only begins after all life-saving measures have failed and death has been declared by independent physicians.

Adams County residents can register at any Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles location when renewing a driver's license or state ID, or online through the Ohio Donor Registry. Ohioans register using first-person consent, meaning the decision to become a registered organ, eye and tissue donor is legally binding and cannot be overridden by anyone.

The tissue statistics in Network for Hope's 2025 figures deserve more attention than they typically receive. A single tissue donor can provide bone grafts for orthopedic surgeries, skin grafts for burn patients and heart valves for children with congenital cardiac conditions. That is why 1,426 donors can plausibly reach 107,000 beneficiaries, a scale of impact that makes tissue donation, and the registration decision behind it, one of the most consequential individual choices available to any Adams County resident.