Nebraska Medicine Raises Flags for Donate Life Month
Nebraska Medicine staff members will honor organ and tissue donors for the lives they’ve saved and healed during a flag raising ceremony at Nebraska Medical Center Wednesday morning. Kidney transplant recipient Maddy Rose Christensen and her mother Nichole (who donated her kidney via a chain) will share what donation has meant to her during the ceremony, which is being held in recognition of Donate Life Month. Liver transplant recipient Stephanie Psota will also speak about her transplant journey. Maddy Rose and Stephanie will help raise the Donate Life flag during the event and will be available to speak to the media.
More than 49,000 transplants were performed nationwide in 2025–breaking the previous year’s number for the 15thstraight year. Surgeons completed more than 27,000 kidney transplants and more than 12,000 liver transplants last year–both were record highs. 4,915 heart transplants were also performed in 2025, which was also a record.
Nebraska Medical Center performed a record 396 transplants in 2025 and is among the very few transplant centers in the nation that can perform all six solid organ transplants. That includes heart, lung, kidney, pancreas, small bowel and liver.
While those are all amazing accomplishments, the need for donors is still great:
Every eight minutes another person is added to the national transplant waiting list.
Approximately 5,000 people die in the U.S. each year while waiting for a transplant.
13 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant.
86% of patients waiting need a kidney.
Many living donors refer to the experience as one of their most rewarding achievements.
WHAT: Donate Life Flag Raising Ceremony
WHERE: Nebraska Medical Center Clarkson Tower - Caregiver’s Plaza, 42nd and Dewey (inside Clarkson Tower in the event of bad weather)
WHEN: April 1, 11:00 a.m.
PARKING: Curb next to Caregiver’s Plaza (look for the Healing Hands sculpture)