Dr. Kenneth Woodside’s Words to Donor Family Members
I started on a transplant recovery team as a sophomore in college two decades ago and now I'm one of the surgeons at University Hospitals Transplant Institute. As a surgeon, I have recovered organs from donors and transplanted the Gift of Life into recipients. I've been part of both the tragedy and triumph of transplant every day during that time. You know the tragic portion, but I want to share the hope that you brought into the world of others, at a time of your tragedy.
Here are just a handful of my patients that are here today because of your generosity.
A young boy with a metabolic liver disease, fixed by an unfortunate young liver donor with grieving parents who wanted to help someone else at a time when they could no longer be helped.
A small woman with a big heart – literally, it was so large from heart failure. When I was an intern, she was the first patient I ever got to tell directly-“we have an organ for you.” It was a life-saving heart. She is a middle-aged woman with new grandkids. Over a decade ago, she knitted me a couple of kitchen potholders that comes out every December for the holidays
A formally strong man who is strong again. He had a kidney and pancreas transplant from which it took months to recover. He came in to see me a couple of months ago just to tell me he was chopping wood for the winter-something he hadn't done in years.
A new bride, bright yellow from liver failure. She brought a smile to everyone who encountered her. She received a liver, just in time. In just over a week, she had lost the tan from jaundice, and was home with her husband.
All of these people have something they did not have before. They have a chance at Life. Not every recipient makes it. Diseases sometimes recur and organs sometimes reject. But, your loved one gave them a shot. Your loved one gave the recipients and their families’ precious time, and precious life. Your family member helped someone when there was nothing left to help them, and gave hope to someone else when their own hope was lost. As these patients' surgeon, I am grateful.
I'd like to mention one more patient. A young man recently transplanted-who will now be able to live a life off dialysis because of a kidney donated by someone who didn't take it with them when he passed.
This young man will no longer need dialysis and his life should be significantly longer because of that kidney transplant. When I met with him and his parents recently, I told them that I would be communicating with donor families. This young man became teary-eyed and quiet for a minute, then simply said, "Tell them thank you." His parents could barely speak, and nodded in sincere agreement.
[Edited for length by Lifebanc.]
