{"id":166157,"date":"2026-04-15T05:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/166157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T05:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:25:08","slug":"pennsylvania-woman-becomes-uss-third-oldest-organ-donor-at-age-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/166157\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania woman becomes US&#8217;s third-oldest organ donor at age 97"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Pennsylvania woman made history after becoming the state\u2019s oldest organ donor and the US\u2019s third-oldest after her death at age 97, according to a report.<\/p>\n<p>Peggy Fields decided to become an organ donor later in life \u2014 and marked state history by giving the gift of her liver to a woman in Florida after her death,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtae.com\/article\/pennsylvania-oldest-organ-donor\/70990754\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> WTAE reported. <\/a><\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39090191\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/peggy-fields-pennsylvania-woman-made-125665580.jpg\" alt=\"Peggy Fields smiling and holding a glass.\" class=\"wp-image-39090191\"  \/>Peggy Fields made history after becoming Pennsylvania\u2019s oldest organ donor and the third-oldest donor in the US upon her death at age 97. WTAE 4<\/p>\n<p>Fields was a \u201clifelong volunteer\u201d who spent much of her life in Pittsburgh helping her church, community, historical societies, and as a Girl Scout leader, her daughter, Linda Kirk, told the local outlet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was always volunteering and giving, so this was her final way to give. That\u2019s what I think,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cIt makes me very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s something that everybody should know \u2014 that you don\u2019t have to be a young spring chicken to donate something, that you can be 97 and donate something to somebody who really needs it,\u201d Kirk said.<\/p>\n<p>The Center for Organ Recovery and Education told the publication that Fields\u2019s heroic choice shows that it\u2019s a myth that people can be simply too old to donate their organs.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39090193\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/peggy-fields-pennsylvania-woman-made-125665583.jpg\" alt=\"Peggy Fields smiling in a period costume at Hanna's Town.\" class=\"wp-image-39090193\"  \/>Fields was a \u201clifelong volunteer\u201d who spent much of her life in Pittsburgh helping her church, community, historical societies, and as a Girl Scout leader. WTAE 4<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe oldest is actually a 100-year-old now from Nebraska, but Peggy holds the distinction of being Pennsylvania\u2019s oldest donor, the oldest female donor in history, and the third-oldest donor in history just altogether,\u201d Katelynn Metz, of CORE, said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want to know that the last thing they do in their life would be to do something for somebody else, and to give their own families this legacy. They just think that they\u2019re too old,\u201d Metz said. <\/p>\n<p>People of all ages can be organ donors in the US, and doctors decide when you die if your organs are viable for donation, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, one out of every three people who donated organs was over 50, according to statistics from the National Institute on Aging. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pennsylvania woman made history after becoming the state\u2019s oldest organ donor and the US\u2019s third-oldest after her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33588,1057,57437,28,30,29,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-166157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-deaths","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-organ-donation","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","13":"tag-pennsylvania-news","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}