January 5, 2026 – The Children’s Organ Transplant Association is a national nonprofit with an unwavering commitment to be The Trusted Leader Supporting Families … For a Lifetime. COTA was founded in April 1986 when an Indiana family could not afford the liver transplant their toddler son needed to survive. Their family members and friends canvassed neighborhoods and county fairs to collect cash and coins to help. That first group of volunteers formed the foundation of what would grow to become COTA.
Seven years later in January 1993, a family in Arizona heard the same devastating news — their toddler son needed a life-saving liver transplant that would cost nearly half a million dollars. The Sornsin family’s transplant journey, which continues today, is a living testament to COTA’s lifetime commitment. … a commitment that now spans four decades.
Ben Sornsin was born in 1991. His mother, Jodi, remembers around his second birthday, Ben was sick for almost two weeks. While not overly worried because the family had been fighting colds, she finally decided to take Ben to the pediatrician. They did not return home that day. Instead, Jodi and toddler Ben were loaded into a small airplane and flown to Los Angeles. During that air transfer, Ben fell into a coma. As Jodi looks back now, that day was the beginning of a long and unexpected journey.
Jodi remembers being ‘snuck into UCLA’ during the middle of the night and watching Ben being moved into a room with lots of monitors. She also remembers a UCLA Transplant Coordinator who became their advocate, and their hero, as Ben’s medical crisis unfolded. Jodi, who was a young mother at the time, was called to the hospital’s financial office very early the next day. She was told Ben would not have been admitted the night before if they had first seen the family’s insurance policy, which had a $100,000 limit on health care coverage. Jodi remembers saying, “We’ll give you our house. We’ll give you all the money we have. Just please help our little boy.”
Later that day, Jodi shared this conversation with her mother who was back home in Phoenix caring for Ben’s sister, Amanda. She told Jodi an employee at Hunter Contracting, Ben’s father’s employer, had heard the Sornsin family was facing a costly transplant. This employee had recently heard about an organization — the Children’s Organ Transplant Association — a group that helped families afford their kids’ transplants. Jodi was scared. She knew they were going to need financial help. So, she reached out that day to learn more. “During that very first call with COTA in 1993, I felt a huge weight being lifted off our shoulders. COTA faxed the necessary paperwork to UCLA and the hospital’s finance people never bothered us again,” she said.
Using COTA’s guidance, friends and family members back in Phoenix started raising awareness of the Sornsins’ health care emergency with their toddler and his need for a liver transplant nearly 400 miles away in Los Angeles. Their friends and family members quickly got to work. The Sornsin family has heartwarming memories about the COTA for Ben fundraising effort … and the immense kindness of strangers. Jodi recalls a local orthodontist who saw a COTA Coin Canister with Ben’s photo at a Godfather’s Pizza location. He decided to organize a COTA for Ben fundraiser on his own. That COTA for Ben event raised more than $50,000 for transplant-related expenses. In addition, Hunter Contracting organized the First (now Annual) Hunter Contracting Golf Outing that raised nearly $20,000 for COTA in honor of Ben.
“Ben has been a COTA kid since before there was easy access to the Internet,” Jodi said. “When I needed to check on the funds that had been raised in honor of Ben, I would have to make a telephone call to COTA’s office in Indiana. Each time I heard the total dollars raised increasing, I felt relief. It was a huge deal for my husband and I to know we were eventually going to be able to get the large hospital bill paid. COTA did that. I do remember during this time raising our family we were watching every penny. Ben’s drugs, at the time, were more than $1,200 per month, and again … COTA helped so much.”
Looking back, Jodi is grateful that today, more than 30 years since Ben’s liver transplant, his journey has been relatively uneventful. Once Ben and Jodi returned home to Phoenix after his liver transplant, he had to be hospitalized because he was very sick and there was a fear his new liver might be damaged. Again at the age of 10, the family experienced a significant scare with Ben’s bile ducts, which were compromised and required three stints to be placed in three of his ducts over the course of nine months. A few years later, it was discovered Ben had aplastic anemia, which can sometimes be a side effect of transplant medications. And recently as an adult, Ben was diagnosed with Valley Fever, which is a local lung disease that could have been extremely problematic because of his transplanted liver. But, again, Jodi says he came through each one of these medical incidents with his liver being unscathed. “Each of these medical setbacks and challenges are all times in our journey when COTA helped immensely with large, transplant-related expenses,” Jodi said.
Over the decades since his liver transplant, the Sornsins have also had to make many trips to California for Ben’s care. Jodi remembers that monthly trips from Phoenix to Los Angeles eventually became every six months and then they became annual trips. “I can honestly say that during the more than 30 years we have been part of COTA, this amazing organization has never NOT helped our family.”
Thinking back over the decades the Sornsins have been part of the COTA Family, Jodi shared: “COTA has made, and continues to make, a HUGE difference for my husband and me and now for Ben and his family. The first airplane ride from Phoenix to Los Angeles … decades of expensive, transplant-related medications … numerous medical tests … medical supplies … endless blood draws … bills that just kept coming … COTA has always been there for our family.”
Since Ben was featured in COTA’s 2006 Calendar, his life has changed a great deal. He graduated from Arizona State University where he met his wife, Samantha. Due to the COVID pandemic, they were married in a beautiful backyard ceremony Jodi describes as perfect in every way. But (now) Grandma Jodi is most grateful that COTA is there for Ben and his young family today. Ben and his wife, Samantha, are not only navigating transplant-related expenses (33 years post-transplant) … they are also raising their beautiful daughter, Zara.
She said, “Today, COTA funds continue to help and sustain this young family. There are still many doctors’ appointments, regular medical tests and transplant medications that even with good health insurance are quite costly. Ben has learned that before stressing about a medical bill, his first call should be to COTA. He has learned to lean on COTA, just like my husband and I did for many years.”
Jodi continued, “COTA helps Ben all of the time. It is an organization we can all count on because they have always been there for us. COTA is part of our family and a big part of our world. COTA has helped so many families over the decades. I am not sure what we would have done without COTA, or what Ben and Samantha would be doing now, without COTA.”
“I know how hard everyone at COTA works to ensure 100% of funds raised in honor of COTA kids is used for transplant-related expenses. Every penny. That is amazing … and it is the truth,” Jodi said. “COTA has sustained so many transplant families for decades, which is why COTA is the Trusted Leader Supporting Transplant Families – For a Lifetime. Families who are willing to lose everything they have to save their child’s life, but do not have to because of COTA.”
“Families like mine,” she said.
Throughout 2026, the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) is celebrating 40 years of its commitment to being “The Trusted Leader Supporting Families … For a Lifetime.” COTA is also celebrating four Decades of Donors — those who make the selfless decision to become organ and tissue donors and financial contributors who have helped raise more than $160 million for transplant-related expenses. COTA was founded by one Indiana family in 1986. Today, thousands of transplant families, like the Sornsins, rely on COTA’s guidance and support, which is provided at no cost.
