He lay on a hospital bed almost 13 years ago, thinking he would never live to see retirement. But a liver donation from a 19-year-old man gave him a second chance. Since then Tom Jorgensen has embraced life whole-heartedly.

Now in his fourth year of retirement, Jorgensen has become an advocate for organ donation and said he hopes to reach out to more people. He is the keynote speaker of the Iowa State University Organ Donor Awareness Day speaker panel, which will be Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in 102 Hamilton Hall.

Jorgensen, chairman of the State Education Committee for the Iowa Donor Network and former Ames High School teacher and coach, was diagnosed with a rare liver disease in 1989. He was hospitalized in March, 1989, to Rochester, where he underwent surgery.

His liver failed after the surgery and he was put on a ventilator. “I went into a coma. They gave me 12 hours to live,” Jorgensen said.

Somehow, his body fought for seven days. During that week, the hospital was able to locate a liver for Jorgensen.

He said he is very grateful and it was a life-altering experience. “Once I got a second chance at life, I wanted to educate other people,” he said.

Jorgensen spends his time traveling to schools and churches, speaking about the importance of organ donation.

“A lot of people don’t think it applies to them,” Jorgensen said. Often, he said, families forget that tragic and sudden deaths can occur.

“We try to get them thinking about [organ donation] beforehand,” he said.

Paul Sodders, public information manager with the Iowa Donor Network, said about 12,400 hospital deaths occur each year in Iowa. In compliance with state law, each family is approached, either by a hospital staff member or a registered nurse with the Iowa Donor Network, to consider donating their loved one’s organs.

Unfortunately, Sodders said, the organs from less than one percent of deaths can be donated, so organ donation is extremely crucial.

“Nationally, there are about 16 people a day who die while they are on the waiting list for an organ,” he said. “Every 14 minutes, a new name is added to that list.”

Sodders said there are 100 possible candidates for organ donation each year in Iowa.

Jorgensen said he has worked with many donor families, and they all have found peace in the giving of their loved ones’ organs. Sometimes it is the only thing that makes sense during their grief, especially when it involves suicide victims, Jorgensen said.

“It’s an emotional, psychological, and spiritual experience,” Jorgensen said. “Because somebody dies, somebody lives. It’s a high-intense thing.”

“A lot of people are misinformed,” he said. “[Organ donation] is an altruistic gift of life.”