Leaders from throughout the region joined family members of Joey Acocella to support the New York Organ Donor Network.
Ten-year-old Acacia Puleo looks to the sky every night before bed and thanks God for the angel that saved her life.
Acacia, a Chappaqua resident, wouldn't be alive today if she didn't receive a liver, intestines and pancreas from an organ donor. "My name is Acacia Puleo, and I have angel parts," she confidently told a group of about 30 people at Harrison Town Hall Wednesday.
Those "angel parts" were brought to her by the same system of donors that kept former Harrison Town Clerk Joseph Acocella, Jr., the man about people gathered to pay respects to, alive for 12 years after he received a transplant at age 18.
Unfortunately, there weren't enough donors to help Acocella a second time; he passed away last summer while waiting for his second transplant. Friends, family and political leaders from the region gathered Wednesday to build support for organ donations that could have saved the life of the local hero.
Laura McCorry, Joseph Acocella’s sister, fought back tears as she explained that only 19 percent of eligible donors are registered in New York State—the third worst rate in the country. There are close to 10,000 people on the state's organ transplant waiting list. McCorry said her brother fought for years to avoid becoming a statistic, but in the end lost his battle on Aug. 8, 2011.
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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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