Delmarva Now
I began writing this column just after May 19. As some of you may recall, that was the date that my daughter, Kristin, died in dialysis on Monday morning of May 19 at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore. She was in dialysis because of the transplanted kidney she had received; about 13 years later, the organ failed when complications developed.
We were first advised by her transplant doctors, before she received the kidney, that the average kidney transplant would last anywhere from seven to nine years, assuming that the person receiving that transplant was careful to take all of the required anti-rejection drugs that were prescribed to give the transplanted kidney -- and other organs, too -- time to adjust as much as possible to their new "home."
In Kristin's case, a young woman who was her classmate at Wor-Wic Community College had volunteered to Kristin that, if she were a match, she would be quite willing to donate one of her kidneys to our daughter. This act was one of great sensitivity, caring, compassion and showed a real desire to help other people.
After inviting the classmate, her husband and then-9-year-old son to our home for dinner, we advised the woman and her family that we were overwhelmed by her offer to donate one of her kidneys. But we said that if she and her family had concerns, worries, or second thoughts about her offer, we would certainly understand.
Just the fact that she had made her offer was, by itself, an incredible act of total selflessness, which we were overwhelmed to receive.
Read more: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120617/NEWS01/206170313
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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