Wetzel Motorcycle Club members and friends line the hallway to honor a departed member.
Dean Brown | The Lima News
LIMA — Saturday evening, Jake DeMoss, 48, from the village of Payne, was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash on U.S. 224 near Convoy in Van Wert County.
According to the Highway Patrol’s Van Wert post, DeMoss was riding a 2001 Harley Davidson eastbound on U.S. 224 and failed to negotiate a curve.
Jake DeMoss succumbed to his injuries on Monday.
Today the Wetzel Club and other motorcycle enthusiasts organized an “Honor Walk.” An honor walk happens when a donor patient on life support is moved from their patient room to an operating room for organ removal prior to donation.
An organ donor, in this case Jake DeMoss, is honored as his body is moved from the ICU to the surgery center for organ removal.
Jesse Wallace, secretary of the club, said, “Wetzel Motorcycle Club has always been about supporting the community and doing as much good as we can. So his family decided he should be an organ donor. So today, we are taking him on his last ride. We have some other motorcycle clubs and some other family and friends. They’re here to support us as well.”
Wallace continued, “We figured Jake’s last ride to donate his organs to help as many people as he could on his way out was the best way to represent our club and himself as a person.”
“We’re here to support him and each other in moments of tragedy as well as in moments of happiness. Today we are trying to celebrate his life and what he can still give to the world rather than seeing it all as bad. It’s really nice that he can give back at least one more time.”
According to the Penn Medical website, there are 105,911 men, women, and children on the national transplant waiting list. Seventeen people die each day waiting for an organ transplant. One tissue donor – someone who can donate bone, tendons, cartilage, connective tissue, skin, corneas, sclera and heart valves and vessels – can impact the lives of as many as 75 people.
Although almost 170 million people are registered to be donors, only three in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for deceased organ donation. That’s why organ donation is a special opportunity and adding the donor designation to your driver’s license is so important.
Reach Dean Brown at 567-242-0409
