General
Organ Donation
I was in another group reading posts and I came across a beautiful post about the power of organ donation. I asked the original poster if I could post the story on TransplantLyfe. She said yes. So below is her post in memory of Jeremy and how he helped so many people 💗
"On May 2021 my 47 yr old son suffered a serious stroke that left him on life support. Upon deciding to remove him from life support my 16 yr. old grandson asked if we could donate his fathers organs to others so that part of him would live on and it would help others not to lose their loved ones. This was the last thing the rest of us were thinking about at this horrible time. We donated my sons kidneys, heart, liver and lungs. Unfortunately they found no matches for the lungs. There are no words to describe how proud I am of my grandson. This was all done through the "GIFT OF LIFE" program. A year after my sons passing I sent "Thinking of You and Hope All is Well" cards to "Gift of Life" to send to the organ recipients, since there is no direct communication unless both parties agree. Shortly afterwards we received a letter from one of the kidney recipients. A wonderful man telling us about himself and how he had end stage disease, waiting for a kidney for over 3 years. He has 4 sons, grandchildren and how grateful he and his family are for this gift.
The heart recipient is doing incredibly well. He walks 9 miles a day on his mail route. All other recipients have responded back to "Gift of Life" allowing them to let us know that they are doing well.
I would just like to ask everyone who has received a gift organ to please send a card or letter to your donor letting them know a little about yourself and how you are doing. Receiving these letters from my sons recipients has meant so much to us. It has meant the world to my grandson, who still misses his father so much. It has been such a great comfort to know that all of you are doing well. May God Bless all of you who are waiting, all of you who have received the gift and all of you who were generous enough to donate to others. Thank you!"
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This is so beautiful. My one year mark is coming up next month and I was thinking about sending a letter to my living donor!
Jeanmarie Thank you no words “beautiful “💚 I have been in contact with my donor family, they were so glad to hear from me. I let them know that there son Andy was my hero. every April I pay honor to him thru Legacy of Life it meant so much to them.
You guys are so lucky. I’ve tried to reach out to my donor family but have never received any response at all. I think of him often and hold his family in my prayers. After 4 years I’m giving up reaching out to them. Just hope they have found peace and comfort knowing he saved others with his gift of life.
Deb, I bet that is hard, but most important you tried to reach out to them so I hope that will give you some comfort, I guess we don’t really know what the donor family is dealing with just so emotional. 💚