Organ donation helps mom cope with her son's murder
By James T. Mulder / The Post-Standard
April 12, 2010, 2:31PM
View full sizeOrgan recipient Stephanie Juskow (kneeling) talks to daughter Emma, 4, while Stephanie's mother, Bernie Reppi, and other daughter, Rebeca, 7, put up a poster of James Blum, the deceased donor who gave Stephanie her new kidney last December. All were attending a press conference Monday at University Hospital about the importance of organ donation.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Antonia Cherry takes solace in knowing that her son, who was murdered last year, lives on through four people.
Her 28-year-old son, Jamar Ellis, was shot in the head May 25 outside her home in the 100 block of West Matson Avenue in Syracuse. He died four days later. Cherry donated his organs.
Knowing that his heart, lungs and kidneys are benefiting others “ ... is what gets me through the day,” Cherry said.
“If you don’t become a donor, two peoples’ lives will be gone,” she said. “Your loved one and somebody else.”
Antonia Cherry holds up a photograph of the Liverpool man who received her son's heart after her son was gunned down on Memorial Day last year.
Cherry spoke this morning at a news conference organized by Upstate University Hospital officials to draw attention to the growing need for kidneys and encourage people to register as donors. Upstate has a record 241 people on its kidney transplant wait list. The average wait for a kidney is about three years. Some people die waiting.
“It is our sacred privilege to care for organ donors,” said Dr. Amy Friedman, Upstate’s director of transplantation services. “They are giving more than can be imagined, life itself.”
Laura Tanyhill became a living kidney donor when she had one of her kidneys removed at Upstate Sept. 25 so it could be transplanted into her husband, the Rev. David Tanyhill, pastor of Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Syracuse.
“I jumped at the opportunity and I knew he would do the same for me,” Tanyhill said. “I am so thankful I took the time to give my husband a kidney.”
Stephanie Juskow, 34, of Mattydale, was on Upstate’s transplant wait list for 723 days before she received a kidney in December from a cousin in Philadelphia who suffered a stroke.
“Many people waiting are not as lucky as me,” Juskow said. “While we wait, death is always in some realm of our thoughts. Organ donation gave me back my life.”
Antonia Cherry said her son’s heart was transplanted into a 70-year-old man who lives in Liverpool.
“People ask me if I regret that such an older man got his heart,” Cherry said. “I do not. If he lives a day longer, a month longer, a year longer, I’m grateful.”
To register as an organ donor, visit nyhealth.gov/donatelife or call 1-866-693-6667.
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