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NORMAL — Melissa Bornder said sunflowers “stand tall and look to the sun for light,” and that’s exactly what her late son Elijah Luczaj did.
One of the first flowers he planted at her house was a sunflower, she said, adding that she still has a photo of Elijah with that sunflower. He wanted the seeds from it to sprout into more flowers, and they eventually shared those seeds with family.
Bornder shared these memories of her only biological son Wednesday after returning to Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal — this time, as an ambassador for the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network.
Melissa Bornder shows off a photo of her son, Elijah Luczaj, during a flag-raising ceremony for National Donate Life Month on April 17 at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal.
Elijah headed into a wooded area for exploration on Oct. 31, 2022, and was found unresponsive in a shallow creek nearby. His parents had found him by tracking his phone GPS data to a location off of Illinois Route 9 west of Bloomington, and they started CPR until paramedics arrived and took him to BroMenn.
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Bornder said Elijah was at BroMenn for just a few hours before being transferred for trauma care at Carle’s sister hospital in Urbana. She noted the quality of care at both facilities was “impeccable.”
“I’ve not stepped foot here in 18 months, and it’s scary and it’s sad. But, I’m brave because my son was a hero,” she said.
Doctors told the Bornder family on Nov. 2, 2022, that Elijah had lost brain activity. His family then allowed doctors to look into whether his organs could be donated. Elijah died Nov. 3, 2022, and on Nov. 6, 2022, his kidneys were donated to two men, one in his 20s, and one in his 40s.
Melissa Bornder, far right, speaks about her late son Elijah Luczaj during a flag-raising ceremony for National Donate Life Month on April 17 at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal.
Bornder said dozens of hospital staff flanked the halls leading to the operating room for Elijah’s “honor walk.”
“They understood my heartbreak and silently thanked Elijah for the greatest gifts he could possibly give,” she said.
Carle hospitals in Normal, Eureka stock clothes for patients in need
Carle hospitals in Normal, Eureka stock clothes for patients in need
A lasting legacy
A single organ donor can save several lives.
In 2023, four organ donors saved eight lives at Carle BroMenn, according to hospital statements. Over in Urbana, Carle Foundation Hospital had 19 organ donors saving 37 lives that year. Together, the facilities also had 91 tissue donors that year.
For several years, Carle has ceremoniously honored National Donate Life Month in April by raising the Gift of Hope flag. In April 2023, Bloomington’s Adam Lovell spoke at BroMenn about how his life was improved by receiving the donation of a kidney and pancreas, after waiting more than three years for a donor.
Over two dozen attended Wednesday’s ceremony, which included the Bornder family and families of other organ donors, plus hospital staff, caregivers and administrators. Colleen Kannaday, president of Carle BroMenn, said what’s most important is calling attention to the importance of organ and tissue donation.
Melissa Bornder, left, speaks about her late son Elijah Luczaj with the Rev. Christine McNeal on April 17 at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal. McNeal is Carle’s senior staff chaplain and coordinator for faith community relations.
“It’s also part of healing, not only for the families, but also for our staff to be able to see good come out of such challenging times and to really be able to make a difference for others,” she said.
It’s a very emotional time when a decision for organ donation is made and a loved one passes on, she said, so a lot of bonding takes place for those involved.
Shelly Hillary, manager of the intensive care unit at BroMenn, said raising the Gift of Hope flag is a powerful way to honor selfless donors and their families, and represents a lasting legacy.
She also told The Pantagraph it’s important for people to take time to register their intent to be an organ donor.
“It’s one less decision a family has to make in a time of crisis,” she said.
A Gift of Hope flag was raised on April 17 during a National Donate Life Month ceremony at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal.
Seeing sunflowers
Elijah is remembered as a person who loved all living things, including his family, dogs, and plants, in particular. He lived with his mother and stepfather, Bill Bornder, in Creve Coeur, and was a stepbrother to Trinity Bornder, 19, and Betty Bornder, 14.
Elijah was a senior at East Peoria Community High School, where he played tuba, trombone and trumpet with the Marching Raiders Band. Melissa Bornder said she’s heard constant stories of how Elijah helped out his bandmates.
She also said Elijah wasn’t a typical 17-year-old boy, as he’d step away from video gaming to get enthused with nature. She said he enjoyed tending to a garden of corn, beans, gourds, pumpkins and sunflowers.
Elijah’s cause of death was ruled as an accidental drowning, according to a Carle news statement. While determining exactly what preceded his death is impossible, Bornder said she believes her son slipped in a muddy creek bottom while trying to cross the water. She said she couldn’t imagine Elijah not wanting to give the gift of life to someone.
Melissa Bornder speaks about her late son Elijah Luczaj during a flag-raising ceremony for National Donate Life Month on April 17 at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal.
After realizing her son wouldn’t make it out of the hospital, Bornder said she wanted to plant sunflowers everywhere in his memory. Her husband Bill then turned that into the hashtag #sunflowerseverywhere; Melissa Bornder said it’s since taken on a life of its own. Friends from across the country have sent her photos of the yellow flowers and with that hashtag.
“I truly see sunflowers everywhere,” she said.
Bornder said there’s a great semblance to sunflowers and the impact of organ donation, because sunflowers drop their seeds to sprout into new sunflowers.
“We use those to help people continue on,” Bornder said.
This story has been updated to correct a misspelling of the Carle BroMenn president’s name.
More than 100,000 people are on the organ donor wait list—here’s who has the longest and shortest wait times
More than 100,000 people are on the organ donor wait list—here’s who has the longest and shortest wait times
When non-surgical medical intervention is no longer enough for patients with missing or damaged organs, organ transplantation can become their best chance for life-sustaining care. A transplant is a procedure in which an organ is surgically taken from a donor and transplanted in a recipient to give a better chance to live longer, healthier, and better than they would have with their own organs. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most commonly transplanted organs in the country are the kidney, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, and intestines.
Limited supply and high demand can contribute to lengthy wait times for organ transplants. On an average day, there are approximately 100,000 individuals actively waiting for an organ transplant in the U.S. Meanwhile, there were only about 14,000 deceased organ donors per year as of 2021— each giving around 3.5 organs to recipients—and about 6,000 organs made available each year by living donors, according to the CDC.
Wait times for organ transplants are more than a simple supply-demand issue. Not all donor organs are compatible with recipient bodies. Hence, organizations like the United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN) find the optimal donor and recipient match based on logistical and medical criteria. For some organs, distance from the donor hospital is a significant factor in matching organs since the organs are viable only for a short period outside of the body.
The quickest way to get a transplant is to join the waiting list. To better understand wait times and the logistical needs of donor matching, Northwell Health partnered with Stacker to compile a list of median organ transplant wait times for each organ using patient data collected by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network between 2012 and 2021. Data was last updated on May 19, 2023.
OPTN does not provide median waiting times for kidney transplants but rather competing risk probability, which calculates mortality and other hazards for possible outcomes. As a result, kidneys are not included in the list.
Heart transplant
– Median waiting time, 2012-2021: 190 days (44,395 registrations added)
– Annual statistics
— Median waiting time, 2017: 230 days (4,536 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2018: 191 days (4,711 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2019: 107 days (4,717 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2020: 77 days (4,594 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2021: 81 days (5,008 registrations added)
Heart transplantation is a complex medical operation involving the surgical transfer of a healthier heart from a donor to a recipient suffering from a heart ailment. The organ is donated after the donor has been declared brain-dead or deceased. According to the U.K.’s NHS, heart transplantation is prescribed when other remedies for treating heart disease don’t work, leaving the patient’s life at risk. Illnesses that might eventually require a heart transplant include coronary heart disease, failing or weakened heart muscles, and congenital heart disease.
During the surgery, doctors put the recipient under anesthesia and use a heart-lung bypass machine to keep pumping blood through the body and brain while they remove the recipient’s heart. The donor heart is then connected to the major veins and arteries. Factors determining the compatibility of a donor’s heart include blood type, body size, and medical urgency, according to the American Heart Association.
As with any major open-heart surgery, there are risks involved, though medical advancements have continued to increase survival rates—even when accounting for more older and higher-risk patients receiving new hearts. Rejection of the donor heart is one of the biggest concerns after organ transplants, and immunosuppressant drugs and frequent post-operative biopsies help doctors monitor issues. Advancements in medication, including monitoring for side effects and helping support a weakened immune system, have made a difference in improving success rates. According to the Mayo Clinic, the one-year post-transplant survival rate for adults is 90% worldwide, and 80% after five years.
Heart and lung transplant
– Median waiting time, 2012-2021: 393 days (565 registrations added)
– Annual statistics
— Median waiting time, 2017: 332 days (47 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2018: 463 days (67 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2019: 182 days (65 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2020: 114 days (80 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2021: 143 days (67 registrations added)
A heart and lung transplant is a medical procedure in which the recipient’s heart and lungs are replaced with the donor’s heart and lungs in the same operation. There are generally few organ pairs suitable for the procedure, and such a major operation is generally considered after all other treatment options are considered. The level of complexity and expertise needed to perform such procedures is another reason that such surgeries are rare. Heart and lung transplants are decided on by a team who determines if the recipient is compatible with the donor organ pair on criteria such as medical history, body size, and a variety of fluid and function tests, along with X-rays and scans.
The organs are donated by a recently deceased or brain-dead donor. Patients must be carefully monitored once the operation is done and should consult a physiotherapist for cardiopulmonary rehabilitation to improve the strength of their new organ pair.
Intestine transplant
– Median waiting time, 2012-2021: 255 days (1,641 registrations added)
– Annual statistics
— Median waiting time, 2017: 260 days (161 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2018: 234 days (139 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2019: 285 days (103 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2020: 395 days (144 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2021: 477 days (142 registrations added)
Before the transplant, to assess suitability for the operation, doctors carries out blood tests to examine the recipient’s liver function, electrolytes, and kidney function, and to see if the recipient suffers from infections like HIV or hepatitis. They would also carry out X-rays of the chest, CT scans of the abdomen, ultrasound scans of the liver, a colonoscopy, and lung-function tests to determine recipient suitability.
During an intestinal transplant operation, doctors would perform an ileostomy to create an opening through which digestive waste can exit the body through an external pouch. Once the transplant team determines that the transplanted intestine is healthy, the ileostomy could be closed to allow waste to flow naturally.
Kidney and pancreas transplant
– Median waiting time, 2012-2021: 650 days (13,350 registrations added)
– Annual statistics
— Median waiting time, 2017: 533 days (1,257 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2018: 405 days (1,295 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2019: 547 days (1,479 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2020: 589 days (1,314 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2021: 660 days (1,488 registrations added)
A kidney and pancreas transplant occurs in one operation. According to the National Kidney Foundation, this operation is prescribed for those who suffer kidney failure due to type 1 diabetes, when their kidneys are unable to filter wastes and their pancreas cannot regulate insulin production.
In this type of operation, the kidney could come from a living or deceased donor, while the pancreas comes from a deceased donor. Before the transplant, patients must take blood tests, urine tests, heart and lung function tests, eye and dental exams, and neurological tests to determine suitability for the operation. Due to significant innovations in this procedure, the organization notes that pancreas-kidney transplants have reached a survival rate of 95% one year post-surgery and 92.5% three years after surgery. Within one year after the operation, there is also an 80% to 85% chance that the recipient will not need dialysis or insulin treatments.
Liver transplant
– Median waiting time, 2012-2021: 433 days (126,714 registrations added)
– Annual statistics
— Median waiting time, 2017: 402 days (12,947 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2018: 368 days (13,147 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2019: 345 days (13,448 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2020: 257 days (13,019 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2021: 239 days (13,833 registrations added)
Responsible for filtering toxins, producing bile, and processing hormones and nutrients, the liver is critical to help your body regulate immune responses. Liver transplants are recommended for people in the end-stage of liver diseases and at risk of liver failure. In 2021, there were more than 9,200 liver transplants in the U.S., making it the second-most common organ transplant after kidneys.
Patients may need liver transplants if they have alcoholic liver disease, cancers beginning in the liver, fatty liver disease, and chronic hepatitis C-induced cirrhosis. A transplantation team will carry out psychological evaluations, blood tests, and diagnostic examinations to ascertain suitability for the operation. While survival rates may vary, its estimated to be 75% for at least five years after surgery.
Lung transplant
– Median waiting time, 2012-2021: 79 days (28,110 registrations added)
– Annual statistics
— Median waiting time, 2017: 79 days (3,000 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2018: 76 days (3,204 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2019: 68 days (3,248 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2020: 42 days (2,675 registrations added)
— Median waiting time, 2021: 46 days (3,091 registrations added)
For patients with diseased or failing lungs due to pulmonary disease, scarring in the lungs, cystic fibrosis, and other severe conditions, a transplant is often the last option. In the U.S., there were more than 2,500 lung transplants performed in 2021, according to the OPTN.
There are three kinds of lung transplants: a single lung transplant, a double lung transplant, and a heart-lung transplant. Sometimes, a living person can donate one lung to a recipient, but generally donors are deceased. The NHS notes that one of the main constraints in lung transplants is that the recipient and donor must be of the same blood type.
Lung transplant recipients have a one-year survival rate of 89%, but with a five-year survival rate of about 60%, the procedure remains one of the most challenging types of transplant operations for patients. A lower long-term survival rate that falls behind other organ transplants is due to about half of patients developing chronic lung allograft dysfunction—a severe condition resulting from tissue rejection—within five years of undergoing a transplant. However, advancements in lung transplantation have increased the odds of survival, and better postoperative monitoring, medications, and donor selection continue to improve postoperative care and our understanding of how to increase lung function.
Story editing by Brian Budzynski. Copy editing by Esprit Smith. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.
This story originally appeared on Northwell Health and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Contact Brendan Denison at (309) 820-3238. Follow Brendan Denison on Twitter: @BrendanDenison
