BY BARBARA LIVINGSTON NACKMAN | Lohud.com
SOMERS — Last year's holiday season was very difficult for the families of Erik Nicoletti and Louie Olivarez.
Neither family knew each other then, but they are forever connected by circumstance. This year they are intertwined and celebrating the holidays with new appreciation.
Nicoletti, 20, a graduate of North Salem High School and student at the University of Tampa, died Nov. 21, 2009, after being struck by a hit-and-run driver. He was a pedestrian and walking with a friend, Cree Riley, 19, who was seriously injured.
The driver, Andres Trujillo, 27, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony counts of leaving the scene of an accident with a death and serious illness and is expected to be sentenced Feb. 8 to 15 years in prison and 15 years' probation, Florida court officials said.
Nicoletti's family was at his side as he was taken off life support. They barely paused before agreeing to donate his organs.
Two days later, Olivarez received three of Nicoletti's organs: liver, kidney and pancreas. The 42-year-old man with Type 1 diabetes and cancerous liver tumors survived two surgeries in 20 hours and hopes to run a five-kilometer marathon.
A poster encouraging organ donation features Nicoletti looking toward the sky with the message: "Son, brother, friend and savior."
"There was no chance of Erik surviving so in this way it is weird and wonderful that someone else is living," his mother, Dorothy Nicoletti of Somers, said this week. "When (doctors) started to ask if we would make a donation, I didn't even let them get the full question out. I just said, 'Yes, yes.' "
In a strange twist of events, she met the recipient when her son's college girlfriend met the man on a Florida party boat six months post-surgery. On the trip with new friends, Olivarez was saying this was his first outing since an unusual three-organ transplant at Tampa General Hospital and she was saying she was trying to get over the tragic death of her sweetheart in the same hospital two days before his surgeries.
"This year has been the most inspiring year for us," said Olivarez, who coordinates office services at a Florida law firm. "I was nervous meeting (the family). It's been an incredible journey for me."
He was in desperate need of dramatic medical help.
"I am thankful to be alive and every day I wake up and I just look up into the sky and say, 'Thank you, Erik,' " he said.
Some donors and recipients don't want to meet and aren't necessarily encouraged by transplant teams. But here, both wanted to connect.
"I did not celebrate Christmas last year," Olivarez said.
Dorothy Nicoletti agrees.
"I couldn't stay home for Christmas or have a tree. This has given me hope, some joy," she said.
Both want to tell people of the value of organ donations and transplants.
Nicoletti hopes to tell others and encourage people to check that box on their driver's licenses.
Olivarez and his partner, Stan Lasater, who runs advertising and printing companies in Tampa, want to rally support for organ donations and another cause close to Nicoletti's heart.
Dorothy Nicoletti wants to raise money for a video studio at North Salem High School, where her son was a 2007 graduate. He loved films, media arts and hoped to make it his career.
Lasater created the poster promoting organ donations and said he also would prepare to help the high school fund.
"It is wonderful that Louie's life was saved, but you have to mourn that a mother lost her son," Lasater said. "I still get choked up thinking about meeting the family. I am glad to have a face of Erik."
The Nicolettis' home has sparkling decorations and first Christmas photos of Erik Nicoletti and his younger sister, Julie, but no tinsel-covered Fraser fir, yet.
Neither family knew each other then, but they are forever connected by circumstance. This year they are intertwined and celebrating the holidays with new appreciation.
Nicoletti, 20, a graduate of North Salem High School and student at the University of Tampa, died Nov. 21, 2009, after being struck by a hit-and-run driver. He was a pedestrian and walking with a friend, Cree Riley, 19, who was seriously injured.
The driver, Andres Trujillo, 27, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony counts of leaving the scene of an accident with a death and serious illness and is expected to be sentenced Feb. 8 to 15 years in prison and 15 years' probation, Florida court officials said.
Nicoletti's family was at his side as he was taken off life support. They barely paused before agreeing to donate his organs.
Two days later, Olivarez received three of Nicoletti's organs: liver, kidney and pancreas. The 42-year-old man with Type 1 diabetes and cancerous liver tumors survived two surgeries in 20 hours and hopes to run a five-kilometer marathon.
A poster encouraging organ donation features Nicoletti looking toward the sky with the message: "Son, brother, friend and savior."
"There was no chance of Erik surviving so in this way it is weird and wonderful that someone else is living," his mother, Dorothy Nicoletti of Somers, said this week. "When (doctors) started to ask if we would make a donation, I didn't even let them get the full question out. I just said, 'Yes, yes.' "
In a strange twist of events, she met the recipient when her son's college girlfriend met the man on a Florida party boat six months post-surgery. On the trip with new friends, Olivarez was saying this was his first outing since an unusual three-organ transplant at Tampa General Hospital and she was saying she was trying to get over the tragic death of her sweetheart in the same hospital two days before his surgeries.
"This year has been the most inspiring year for us," said Olivarez, who coordinates office services at a Florida law firm. "I was nervous meeting (the family). It's been an incredible journey for me."
He was in desperate need of dramatic medical help.
"I am thankful to be alive and every day I wake up and I just look up into the sky and say, 'Thank you, Erik,' " he said.
Some donors and recipients don't want to meet and aren't necessarily encouraged by transplant teams. But here, both wanted to connect.
"I did not celebrate Christmas last year," Olivarez said.
Dorothy Nicoletti agrees.
"I couldn't stay home for Christmas or have a tree. This has given me hope, some joy," she said.
Both want to tell people of the value of organ donations and transplants.
Nicoletti hopes to tell others and encourage people to check that box on their driver's licenses.
Olivarez and his partner, Stan Lasater, who runs advertising and printing companies in Tampa, want to rally support for organ donations and another cause close to Nicoletti's heart.
Dorothy Nicoletti wants to raise money for a video studio at North Salem High School, where her son was a 2007 graduate. He loved films, media arts and hoped to make it his career.
Lasater created the poster promoting organ donations and said he also would prepare to help the high school fund.
"It is wonderful that Louie's life was saved, but you have to mourn that a mother lost her son," Lasater said. "I still get choked up thinking about meeting the family. I am glad to have a face of Erik."
The Nicolettis' home has sparkling decorations and first Christmas photos of Erik Nicoletti and his younger sister, Julie, but no tinsel-covered Fraser fir, yet.
1 comment:
What a beautiful story. To lose and son and be able to meet the person who is saved by such a gift.
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