Holland's Mike Lopez saved by liver transplant, Michigan

By LISA ERMAK The Holland Sentinel

When Mike Lopez found out his liver was failing, he didn’t want to tell his family until after Christmas.

The 54-year-old Holland man was diagnosed with cirrhosis and hepatitis C, a surprise to him because he had always been in good health and rarely drank.

The fear of the unknown consumed his thoughts for months.

“I was just scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen in the future, if I would ever get on the (organ registry) list or how much longer I had to live.”

After undergoing months of testing, Lopez made it on the list July 12, 2010.

Just 12 days later, his life was turned around when he got a phone call saying he had a donor.

He describes that day as filled with mixed emotions.

“I was kind of happy. It was unexpected because it usually takes a lot longer. It all happened so quick. Even before you get that phone call, you know that somebody has to die so that I can live, unless they can find a living donor.”

A statewide push

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson has made organ donation a priority.

“There’s been tremendous support by the Secretary of State,” said Richard Pietroski, CEO of Gift of Life Michigan. “It has been a progression going back to (former Secretary of State) Richard Austin. Each secretary of state has encouraged people to become organ and tissue donors.”

In April, Secretary of State office employees started asking drivers if they’d like to be a donor when they come in to renew their license, and the option to become an organ donor was included in driver’s education classes this spring.

Since the two new policies were initiated, the number of donor registrations has gone up 25 percent.

“For years, Michigan has ranked nearly last among states in organ donor registration. In cooperation with Gift of Life Michigan, the Michigan Eye-Bank and other partners, we are doing everything we can to turn the numbers around,” Johnson said.

Strength through faith, family

In the midst of Lopez’s journey to be matched with a new liver, he became a Christian and said he believes his faith in God is what got him through.

“He was right by me the whole time. I never lost faith in believing that I was going to be OK,” he said.

Not long after his surgery, Lopez was contacted by Gift of Life Michigan because his donor’s family had expressed an interest in meeting him, something Pietroski said is relatively rare among donors and recipients.

Of the 800 annual donors in Michigan, there are a dozen or less donor-recipient meetings.

Lopez said it took him awhile to reach out to the family, but eventually agreed and, 10 months after his surgery, he finally met the father of his donor, a 7-year-old girl from Lansing named Amaia Alysse Edmond.

“It’s been wonderful. It’s been really good for me to meet them. We’ve gotten close. (Amaia’s father) calls me his brother and they tell me that I have a new family.”

Lopez has kept Amaia’s memory alive with a shirt bearing her face and a photo of her smiling, which he carries in his wallet everywhere he goes.

Healing through giving

Dozens of stories of hope and recovery scatter Gift of Life Michigan’s website. They tell stories of families who have coped with a loss of a family member through the donation of their organs or tissue.

Brooke Hershberger of Holland shares the story of her family making the choice to donate her mother’s fiance’s organs because they thought it was something he would want had he been alive.

“Bobby was a fantastic man and I loved him very much and I know he is smiling in heaven knowing he helped these families.”

Not only does the act of donating organs help some families to heal, Pietroski said, but to also know they’re providing a charitable act to another human being.

“You have patients who are sick, individuals who wanted to live, but couldn’t and families who are left with a void to fill,” Pietroski said. “This helps them.”

More about organ donation

• Each donor can save up to eight lives
• Nearly 10,000 Michigan patients have received a life-saving transplant in the past 10 years
• Cornea transplants have been successful for more than 100 years
• On average, 17 Michigan patients receive an organ transplant each week
• There is no age limit for donation
• Donation doesn’t cost anything
• In 2010, 289 organ donors provided 786 organs to recipients in Michigan
• In Ottawa County, 31 to 40 percent of adults are registered organ donors
• In Allegan County, 21 to 30 percent of adults are registered organ donors

To join the donor registry

• Go to giftoflifemichigan.organd click “Become a Donor”
• Call (800) 482-4881
• Visit any Secretary of State office