Mike seemed like a normal guy. He looked like a dad, a husband, a hard-worker; pretty clean cut and smiling a lot. He reminded me immediately of the boys from high school, except that he was introducing himself to everyone and engaging in conversation. Not at all awkward like they were.
And then there was Wendy. She was striking in an all black ensemble with her black pixie haircut and bright eyes. It wasn't until she got closer to me that I noticed her belly. And her yellow eyes. And then it occurred to me... she was waiting. Which meant that Mike was the one who had lost.
My life changed on June 24. Every year since 2005, June 24 did something to me. First, a liver-transplant. Year two, singing at the Donor Recognition Ceremony at the US Transplant Games, honoring the families who gave so much in the midst of their grief. Year three, a liver birthday party, hosted by my very best college friends. And this year, speaking to one of the top 200 hospitals in the United States about the importance of organ donation and how it has changed my life. Really, how it has given me life.
Mike told his story. He and his wife were headed to his daughter's dance recital. When it was time for Katie to come onstage and she wasn't there, he knew something was terribly wrong. They got a call and went to the hospital. She was in ICU 11. The doctors told her she was brain dead, and someone came in and spoke with them about the opportunity to save lives through donating Katie's organs. Mike and his wife Melanie remembered a conversation they had with Katie a few months before. She had asked to be an organ donor and to be cremated if something were to happen to her. They honored her wishes.
Less than one year later, Mike's wife Melanie had a brain aneurism. Mike was with her and she got to the hospital immediately. The surgeons performed a successful surgery. In the middle of the night, Mike got a call at home. Melanie had internal bleeding that wasn't visible before, and he needed to come to the hospital to make some decisions. He got there, to ICU 11, where their Katie had been, and once again had the opportunity to give second chances from such tragedy.
He declared to us with a smile on his face, "God did not cause my family to die because people needed transplants. But God gave me the opportunity to see something good come out of my tremendous loss."
His wife and daughter saved more than 8 lives and enhanced more than 80 others with tissue, bone, and cornea donation.
Wendy stood up gracefully, unfolded her papers, and began to share. She was diagnosed with a rare liver disease in 1988. The doctors told her she would not live 5 years. She had an emergency surgery that gave her 20 years of health and normal life. Within the past two years, she has gotten sick again. She has been in and out of the hospital with kidney stones, blood transfusions, and many other things that we couldn't understand if we tried. Wendy is jaundiced from her poor liver function. She is constantly itching and has a "baby belly" from fluid that can't be drained from her body. As she reads 2 pages of her hospitalizations and their causes, her mother sits amongst the medical staff with tears rolling down her weary cheeks. Wendy talks about her love for cooking, and how she still cooks a meal every night for her husband and son. She is only 39. Her son is 9. She has been waiting for a transplant for over 2 years, but there are not enough donors.
It is hard to talk to someone like Wendy, who is barely living, when I had a transplant after 3 days on the list. But my story gave her hope. And she is the reason that I continue to tell people over and over how important it is to be generous. This means with our bodies presently and in the future, with our thoughts and prayers towards ourselves and others, and knowing how we can help people, the environment, and empower ourselves-- and then taking action.
There are 100,000 real people, with families, pain, and passions, who are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in the US alone. 19 of these people die each day, waiting, because of the shortage of donors. Donating cornea, tissue, and bone can give sight to those who cannot see, give legs to those who cannot run, and faces to those suffering from burns and similar tragedies.
We don't have to wait until we die to spread the word about organ donation. Feeling healthy? You can be an altruistic kidney donor. 81,000 of the 100,000 waiting are in need of one healthy kidney. If 81,000 living donors would step forward, there would be no casualties waiting for a kidney. Talk to your family about how you can help. Sign up in your state's online registry. Get educated about donation and speak up! People's lives depend on you. People like me.
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