Speaking of giving, the most precious gift you can give is life. It has always been my desire since before I was even an adult that someday when my soul was done with my body, whatever is left would be donated for others to continue to use. After the useful part was harvested, my wish is to be cremated and my ashes tossed into the ocean.
Yesterday in my media clips, a story was told about a woman who died of an aneurysm and how her husband gave consent for donating some of her organs to save two other lives. It is the most simple thing we could do to save another... yet so many, in their grief, cannot consent.
If you live in Texas, you can make that decision for your loved ones by signing up at www.donatelifetexas.org. I'm not sure if there is a national registry or if every organ donation list is state by state. If I find another link for other states, I will post it.
I encourage every one to take the time to consider saving someone else's life when yours is over. It is the most wonderful thing anyone can do for another human being.
Give them their freedom...
Give them new life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Texas City Woman’s Death Lets 2 Others Live
By Chris Paschenko
The Daily News
Published November 28, 2007
Lugging around an insulin pump while enduring 12 hours of dialysis every week hampered a Midland woman’s dreams of earning a better education, starting a career or having a family.
Mary Grace Jackson, 36, began suffering from diabetes at age 8, but her long bout with the debilitating disease ended Nov. 11 after her successful double-transplant surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston was made possible when a Texas City man fulfilled his wife’s wish to become an organ donor.
Carol Hayes, 45, died Nov. 8 after a weeklong struggle to recover from an aneurysm. Her husband, Pluria Hayes, said he initially declined an invitation from a representative of an organ-donor organization at the medical branch.
After speaking with his sister-in-law the next day, Hayes made a decision that changed the lives of Jackson and another recipient Pamela Prudhoe, 49, of Little Elm.
Saying no would have been a selfish act, he said. Both Jackson and Prudhoe said Tuesday they’ll forever be grateful.
“I was sick a lot as a kid,” Jackson said from the Galveston La Quinta hotel lobby on the seawall. “I had a virus at the time ... That’s what triggered it.”
Judy Latimer of Big Spring gave her daughter insulin injections for the first year, but Jackson took over thereafter.
“She had some rough times,” Latimer said, “and was in a diabetic coma and didn’t come out of it very easily, sometimes not for days.”
Jackson said the predicament was the cause of her kidney failure. She also had open-heart surgery in January.
“Once I got all that done, I was put on the donor list May 4,” Jackson said. “They thought it would be six months or longer,” she said of the wait to find a suitable kidney and pancreas donor, but she awoke Nov. 10 to a 5:30 a.m. phone call.
“I was really excited and a little nervous. I was here by noon and in surgery at 6 p.m. All-in-all it was a 10-hour surgery,” she said.
Jackson’s pancreas is producing insulin, and the doctor told her she would no longer need insulin shots. She’s taking 13 medications to aid her recovery. She also doesn’t have to continue testing her blood-sugar level.
“But I still do, because I’m curious,” she said. “I don’t have to wear an insulin pump anymore. When I go back home Thursday or Friday, that’s going to be a big change. I still have to pinch myself.”
Prudhoe said she began suffering from “complete” renal failure in 2006 and received a grim prognosis.
“It was very shocking. I was a healthy girl my whole life.” Prudhoe said via a telephone interview Tuesday. “I’m a survivor, I was given two months to live in July 2006. I beat the odds. Without the transplant my prognosis was two to three years.”
Prudhoe had the same early morning phone call as Jackson, and under went an eight-hour surgery at Methodist Hospital in Dallas where she received Hayes’ liver and other kidney.
Both Jackson and Prudhoe said words can’t express their gratitude to Carol and Pluria Hayes.
“I’d give him a big hug, and tell him, ‘God bless you and thank you for letting me live,’” Prudhoe said. “‘There are not enough words in the world to show my full gratitude. Even at your loss, two other people can live from the graciousness of you and your wife.’”
Jackson is thinking of becoming a dietitian, but she didn’t know until her interview with The Daily News that her donor was previously employed in that very profession.
“I know what it’s like to be a child and have to cut out sweets and certain foods,” Jackson said. “Maybe I could have a job at my dialysis center.”
Pam Silvestri, with Southwest Transplant Alliance, said Texas has a new organ donor registry, www.donatelifetexas.org, to assist in the process.
“If you put your name in that registry, then your family will not have to struggle with the donation decision,” Silvestri said. “All who take time to register are legally and officially organ donors. With that registration, we will not have to ask the family members for permission, and that should make an already difficult time less difficult...”
For more information, call 800-788-8058.
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On the Web
www.organ.org
http://news.galvestondailynews
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