In this week's "Ultimate Gift" report, News 12 is focusing on the ripple effect of gratitude that can occur when someone becomes an organ donor at death.

Alison Keating, of Donate Life Connecticut, says people find powerful ways to express their gratitude for organ donation. It came through song for Jay Gulotta, whose father died suddenly in 2002.

Jay Gulotta Sr. saved four people on the wait list for vital organs and helped countless others with donor tissue. His legacy of helping strangers in need continues to strike a healing chord in his family.

Keating says the organs of one person can save as many as eight lives and that their tissue can be used to help more than 75 people. Right now, she says 1,200 people are waiting for a transplant in Connecticut. The person who saves them, she says, could be 1,000 or more miles away.