“Would you? Yes! Just like that.”
The first time my friend Steven Pursely told me that’s how he felt about donating his kidney to his mom, I believed him. But that’s the type of person Steven is, giving and kind.
On June 7th, 2011 Steven gave his mother, Edith Ritter, her life back and I was lucky enough to see it happen.
Earlier this year Steven started posting statuses on Facebook about his mom. A rare disease had attacked Edith’s kidneys and pills weren’t giving doctors the results they wanted so dialysis was the best option. I didn’t know much about dialysis, but I do know it’s not pleasant. In her words, for Edith it was just plain “bad.”
Steven and I go the same church and sing in the choir together. The choir had been praying for him and his mom as the original transplant date drew closer (May 19th).
This March I started a video production internship with Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Marketing and Public Relations department. In April they assigned me to co-produce a video about National Donation Month for our social media channels. Since the topic of organ donation is important to many, I got the idea to do a short documentary about Steven, his mom and their journey.
I asked my co-workers for permission and they said, “Of course!” Steven and his mom were on board and very excited. After much preparation, scheduling, writing, shooting, editing and storytelling, here is the first part of Steven and Edith’s story.
Video production is my job but more importantly it’s my passion and it was a blessing to be there for Steven and Edith.
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