Five Organ Recipient Celebrates 10 Year Transplant Anniversary
February 17, 2001, Mike Pollard underwent an extremely rare transplant surgery. He received five organs at one time; a procedure that had only been done about 80 times in the entire world. Doctors were very straightforward with Mike at the time. Since this type of transplant was rare and complicated, the longest anyone had survived so far was about three years. The odds were not good, but Mike, the father of five children, wanted more than anything to be around to raise his children, so he went ahead with the transplant.
On February 17, 2011, Mike Pollard celebrated his ten year transplant anniversary, a milestone no one expected him to reach!
Mike celebrated his anniversary by speaking to students at the College of Southern Idaho, something he has done every semester for the last eight years. However, this time he was joined by the parents of his organ donor.
Mike’s presentation included pictures of his family. He showed a picture of his oldest daughter, who was 15 years old when he had his transplant, the same age as his donor. He then showed a picture of each of his children, followed by a few pictures of his grandson. He wanted the students to understand how much it means to him just to be alive and experience the everyday ups and downs of life. He told about his rare medical condition and the grim outlook he was given by his doctors.
February 17, 2001, Mike Pollard underwent an extremely rare transplant surgery. He received five organs at one time; a procedure that had only been done about 80 times in the entire world. Doctors were very straightforward with Mike at the time. Since this type of transplant was rare and complicated, the longest anyone had survived so far was about three years. The odds were not good, but Mike, the father of five children, wanted more than anything to be around to raise his children, so he went ahead with the transplant.
On February 17, 2011, Mike Pollard celebrated his ten year transplant anniversary, a milestone no one expected him to reach!
Mike celebrated his anniversary by speaking to students at the College of Southern Idaho, something he has done every semester for the last eight years. However, this time he was joined by the parents of his organ donor.
Mike’s presentation included pictures of his family. He showed a picture of his oldest daughter, who was 15 years old when he had his transplant, the same age as his donor. He then showed a picture of each of his children, followed by a few pictures of his grandson. He wanted the students to understand how much it means to him just to be alive and experience the everyday ups and downs of life. He told about his rare medical condition and the grim outlook he was given by his doctors.
Mike then introduced the mother of his donor, Sandra Clutter. Sandra and her husband Jerry traveled from
Pittsburgh to spend the 10 year anniversary with Mike and his family. Sandra told about her son, Jerryd. “He would give anything to anybody, including his lunch money,” she said. He was fascinated with the stock market and would watch the news with his dad each morning before school. He was a natural with a rifle and had found his niche at school in the rifle club. On the morning of February 15, 2001, he rode to school with a friend. A few hours later, Sandra received a call informing her that Jerryd was in an accident and had been taken to the hospital She never had any doubt that the hospital staff did everything possible in an attempt to save Jerryd, but it became apparent that he was not going to make it. She says when she received this news; she turned to her husband and said, “You know they will be asking us about organ donation. What do you think we should do?”
Pittsburgh to spend the 10 year anniversary with Mike and his family. Sandra told about her son, Jerryd. “He would give anything to anybody, including his lunch money,” she said. He was fascinated with the stock market and would watch the news with his dad each morning before school. He was a natural with a rifle and had found his niche at school in the rifle club. On the morning of February 15, 2001, he rode to school with a friend. A few hours later, Sandra received a call informing her that Jerryd was in an accident and had been taken to the hospital She never had any doubt that the hospital staff did everything possible in an attempt to save Jerryd, but it became apparent that he was not going to make it. She says when she received this news; she turned to her husband and said, “You know they will be asking us about organ donation. What do you think we should do?”They both believe strongly in organ donation and although they had never discussed this with Jerryd, they felt that he would have made that decision as well. They decided to donate whatever they could. Five of Jerryd’s organs went to
save Mike’s life. His kidneys went to two additional people. They found out later that his heart valves saved the life of a four year old, and tissue donation went on to help another 117 people. In all, 121 people benefited from the organs and tissues Jerryd donated. A student asked her if she saw Jerryd when she looked at Mike. “No,” she responded. “When I look at Mike, I see Mike, but I do feel like Jerryd can experience the things he was not able to experience in his life through Mike. He can experience what it is like to be a father and a grandfather since he never had that opportunity. And he loved blondes. That’s probably why Mike has been able to beat the odds. Jerryd doesn’t want to leave his blonde daughters.” That got a good laugh from the students.After class, Jerry stated that, “It’s a sad story, but he (pointing to Mike) is the happy ending.”
What an amazing class that those student won’t soon forget. Mike has survived against all odds. He has been able to watch three of his children graduate from high school and two get married. He plays with a grandson no one ever expected him to live to see.
The Clutters are able to celebrate life as well. They will always miss Jerryd, but they take joy in getting to know Mike and in learning about the other lives that Jerryd saved and improved through donation. They encourage people to have that discussion, to talk with their families about organ donation. More information about organ donation can be found at www.yesutah.org.
The Clutters are able to celebrate life as well. They will always miss Jerryd, but they take joy in getting to know Mike and in learning about the other lives that Jerryd saved and improved through donation. They encourage people to have that discussion, to talk with their families about organ donation. More information about organ donation can be found at www.yesutah.org.
1 COMMENTS:
Thank you for sharing this inspirational story of the shared gift of life through organ and tissue donation. What many people still do not understand is how many people can be positively affected through the gift of tissue donation. As stated in the article, Jerryd Clutter helped 117 different people through tissue donation, and 121 total including the organs he also donated. Though there is little awareness of the need for tissue donation, it can actually have the same life-saving and life enhancing benefits as organ donation. I’m writing on behalf of AlloSource, one of the nation’s largest non-profit providers of skin, bone and soft tissue allografts for use in surgical procedures. In order to act as a resource for donor families and recipients and educate the public about the possibilities of tissue donation and transplantation, we started a blog: www.allograftpossibilites.org. For future articles, as well as additional background, we invite you to visit our blog and help raise awareness of the need for tissue donation.
Erin Dolin, Allosource
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