Families of organ donors celebrate life at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in NYC
NEW YORK (PIX11) – More than 115,000 people in the United States are waiting for organ donations to thrive.
More than 8,000 people are waiting in New York State alone.
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The single largest gathering of donor families and transplant recipients in the country was held at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
The ecumenical service was sponsored by the Transplant Recipients International Organization, often called TRIO, with the support of Live On New York. One of the speakers on the altar was Katrina Erskin, whose firstborn son Jaleel stopped breathing when he was just five weeks old back in 2000.
Katrina then made the courageous decision to donate Jaleel's organs, saving two other babies' lives.
'This brings me healing from losing my son,' Erskin, who now works at LiveOnNY, told PIX11 News. 'I never thought I could feel so much joy, but I work with Live on New York, and it's amazing to see.'
Katrina was surrounded by her father, her brother, and two more sons.
'I never envisioned what Jaleel would do in life, and now he is bigger than life because he gave life,' Philip Jones, Jaleel's grandfather, told PIX11 News.
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Another of Katrina's sons, Anthony Wilson, added, 'Even though a person has lost their life, to be able to give life, that just makes me happy all the time.'
So many of the close to 2,000 people at this service called Remember and Rejoice are alive today because of the generosity of others, including the head of TRIO, who received a liver transplant.
'I don't understand what a family goes through in that heartbreaking moment,' Lorrinda Gray-Davis, a liver recipient and president of TRIO National, told PIX11 News. 'But I'm just in awe of the generosity they give to us in order for us to live.'
Ken Kraetzer's beloved wife Kerri-Ann was hit by a car, and through his grief, he takes comfort in her donations of both kidneys and her liver.
'My wife Kerri will always be a hero organ donor,' Ken Kraetzer, a widower, told PIX11 News. ' We feel good about in in a really awful situation.'
If you would like to learn about how to donate an organ, you can visit the NYC Department of Motor Vehicles, voter registration, or the Donate Life website.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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