Give the Gift of Life
Thousands of people die in this country each year with organs that would be perfectly acceptable to replace those diseased or damaged.
Seguin native Kellie Kannard, donated a kidney to save the life of a San Antonio resident she’d never known until three days before the surgery. She said it best: “They aren’t going to do any good in the ground.”
Thursday, heart transplant recipient Cliff Letbetter told readers he wants to help organize an “organ walk” in Seguin next October to help raise awareness of the issue.
Esmeralda “Mela” Perez of the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance would like to help organize a support group for those whose lives have been touched — or saved — by organ donation.
Tuesday, Perez and Guadalupe Regional Medical Center’s Director of Pastoral Care, Jeremy Roy, spoke of the need for transplant organs and the need to register as donors.
Sunday, the “extended family” of Fred and Gloria Schaker opened their home and their hearts to the public, talking about deciding to donate organs from their son, Chris, who died two years ago, to Florida resident Michael Radicchi, who visited McQueeney to say thanks.
Today, readers meet Joe Palomo and Janie Juarez, who agreed to donate organs from their daughter, Jennifer Penuelaz, who died in November, 2002 at GRMC.
The Gazette Enterprise will support TOSA, Letbetter and others in their effort to raise awareness about the need for donor organs and asks all readers with Internet access to consider the issue and become donors themselves by logging on to www.donatelifetexas.org to register with the Glenda Dawson Donate Life-Texas Registry by filling out the online form. It’s easy, it takes less than a minute and it might just save someone’s life. If you don’t have Internet access, call Mela Perez at The Texas Organ Sharing Alliance at 210-614-7030 and she will send you the simple form to fill out.
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