Transplant Program

I organized an informational transplant program last Sunday evening at our church. In addition to me saying a few words, my friend, Sonja, who is a Transplant Coordinator at Lehigh Valley Hospital spoke, along with Todd Franzen who works with Gift of Life Donor Program. One of my patients from my office is the patient liason with the Gift of Life and he was kind enough to come and speak on behalf of the program and also opted to say a few words on a personal note, as a transplant recipient. The second half of the evening was devoted to friends who have somehow been touched by transplant, either receiving an organ, donating one, having a family member receive a transplant or donating a loved one's organs. The whole evening was quite informational, but listening to those individuals was quite emotional. Unfortunately, we learned that only about 45-46% of people in both Lehigh and Northampton County are registered donors on their driver's license. That number should be a whole lot higher! If you're not a donor, won't you consider becoming one?

Sonja:

One of our guests...somehow my photographer managed to get quite a few pics of this little one :)

Todd Franzen from Gift of Life:

Yours truly:

My friend, Nancy, sharing her experience with her daughter's liver transplant at 10 months:

My panel of recipients, donors, etc. At far right, is Pastor Barry who received a liver transplant last year, and to his right, are Rachel, Nancy's daughter and her friend Christie, who also received a liver transplant earlier this year:

Gerri, at very left, donated her husband's organs after he had a brain aneurysm. To her right are Steph and her husband, Chris, who were involved in a paired exchange at Johns Hopkins in Maryland. Chris wanted to donate to his wife, but was not a match. There was another couple being evaluated at Hopkins that was in a similar situation. The husbands ended up donating to each other's wives :)

And there's that little cutie pie again :)