CROWN POINT – There are many kinds of gifts – birthday, Christmas, wedding and baby gifts, to name a few – but none more precious than the gift of life, which can be provided through organ and tissue donations. That miracle was recognized at the annual Donor Remembrance Celebration hosted by Franciscan Health Crown Point on April 21.
“It truly changes a life,” said John Babbitt, of Chicago, who told his personal story as a kidney transplant recipient to organ donors, organ recipients, leadership and staff members gathered in St. Joseph Chapel. “When I meet other donors or recipients, we have an instant bond.”
Babbitt’s journey began in 2013, when both of his kidneys had to be removed due to renal cell carcinoma. He began 3-1/2 years of kidney dialysis, which he admitted was “very, very tough. There were days that I just didn’t want to go, because it is so exhausting, but my wife Murrell was there to encourage me.
“We prayed every day that God would bring us a donor,” said Babbitt, and hope came in the person of Joyce Doty, a young woman who learned about Babbitt’s plight during a donor drive that his wife organized at their church. “She came to us and said she wanted to save my life by donating a kidney.”
After a trip to Wisconsin, where tests showed “her blood was fighting my blood,” Joyce was asked to donate her kidney to someone else as part of a kidney exchange program that would offer Babbitt a compatible kidney through a six-person exchange.
“I received a new kidney on Feb. 11, 2016, from Bridget, and I thank God for that. It’s been going strong ever since,” reported Babbitt. “I have a new family now,” he added, and every year on birthdays and holidays, Babbitt remembers his donor and her family with a token of appreciation. “We can’t repay them,” he said.
Babbitt’s message to others with health issues that require a transplant is, “There’s hope, hope for you. Always be encouraged.”
Offering that hope are people like Christine Ho, who also shared her family’s inspirational story.
When her husband, Jonathan Ho, was late picking up their 10-year-old daughter at her sister’s home after his day shift as a Chicago Police Department officer in the summer of 2015, she just thought he was stuck working late. But when she got a call from her 12-year-old son saying police were at their home asking for her, and an officer called her at work, her worst fears were realized. Her husband had been hit by a car that turned in front of him while he was on the way home from work on his motorcycle and, after police rushed her to the hospital, she learned he had suffered a serious brain injury.
A shunt was implanted in his brain, but after Jonathan Ho suffered more than 75 strokes overnight, his wife began concentrating on how to get her children to the hospital to say goodbye to their father. “I was asked if he was an organ donor, and I didn’t know. Honestly, if he hadn’t been listed as a donor on his driver’s license, I probably would have said no to it, just because I didn’t know enough about organ donations,” Ho admitted.
But since Illinois law honors donor designations, Jonathan Ho, 35, gave the gift of life in the form of his “two corneas, both kidneys, his heart and more,” said his widow, now a St. John resident. “My children and I have met three of the recipients, and they are like our second family.”
Ho said the experience brought her peace and was very meaningful to her children. “We are all signed up as organ donors now,” she said.
Each year during National Donate Life Month, the hospital encourages its staff members to register as organ and tissue donors with educational registration drives, a celebration of donor recipients and a memorial Mass for those who donated to help others.
“In addition to honoring the incredible gift of life from these selfless donors, we also today want to celebrate the families and friends of those who have supported their loved ones’ decision to donate,” Franciscan Health Crown Point President and CEO Raymond Grady said.
In support of the Catholic healthcare ministry’s core value of respect for life, Franciscan Health Crown Point partners with Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, Life Line Stem Cell and VisionFirst Indiana Lions Eye Bank to facilitate organ, eye, stem cell and tissue donation. Representatives were on hand to explain their work, and Lauren O’Day of the Gift of Hope presented Grady with a plaque in recognition of the hospital’s support for organ donations.
“These are gifts of compassion and hope given to a stranger, and it’s beyond measurable words,” said Amanda Hawkins of VisionFirst of the cornea donations that restore sight to recipients. “Our goal is to improve the quality of life through eye donations, which not only give sight but transform lives.”
Erin DiMichele, RN, director of critical care at Franciscan Health Crown Point, has not only professional but also personal experience with organ donations. “My best friends and my mom were donors. My mom donated her kidneys, eyes, skin and tissue after her cardiac death; we had talked about it all throughout my life so I knew it was what she wanted,” said DiMichele, of Crown Point. “It gives you peace, knowing she is living on in others.”
Also attending the remembrance was Melisa Merca, RN, of Dyer, Emergency Department manager at the hospital. “I was an ICU nurse, so I’m familiar with transplants, and my aunt was a live organ recipient in 2014. “It’s very emotional, and we weren’t sure if she would make it, but she is fully stable and leads a somewhat normal life.”
According to Donate Life Indiana, more than 1,000 Hoosiers are among more than 104,000 Americans awaiting organ transplants. In the U.S., another person is added to the transplant waiting list every nine minutes. Each day, 16 people die because a donated organ wasn’t available in time.
During National Donate Life Month each April, Franciscan Health Crown Point encourages its staff members to register as organ and tissue donors through educational registration drives, celebrate donor recipients and honor the memories of those who continue to live on through donation. One donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance the lives of more than 75 people through tissue donation.
For more information, visit DonateLifeIndiana.org/About-Donation/FAQS.
Caption: A display about organ donations was set up in the lobby of Franciscan Health Crown Point on April 21 for the annual Donate Life Celebration hosted by the hospital. Reading the Messages of Hope posted by employees and visitors are Katrina Hejnowski, chief nursing officer, and visitor Troy urtis, of Lacrosse. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)
