50+ Lifestyles

PUBLISHER’S CORNER

By Eloise Graham

Leaving a Living Legacy

February 14 is known as Valentine’s Day. A day for giving candy, flowers … maybe even your heart.

February 14 is also National Donor Day.

Reminiscing about National Donor Day, I decided to relate my story…  or rather that of my husband Jim. Some of you knew him personally, but did you know that he was an organ donor?

Jim had been a blood donor for a number of years. He was a universal donor of Rh negative blood. He wanted to give back and help as many people as he could. When the medication he was on would no longer allow him to be a blood donor, he decided to be an organ donor and signed the back of his driver’s license saying as much. I wondered what he might be able to donate given his age and health conditions. But he wanted to be a donor, and I supported his decision.

The night Jim died, I was sitting in the “private family room” at Genesis East. Someone came in and asked if I knew he had requested to be a donor. I told them yes, that was his wish. Since he had died of a heart attack, I knew that organ could not be used. I still silently questioned if anything could be harvested, but I wanted to follow his wishes.

A day later I got a call from someone (not for sure if it was from the hospital or Iowa Donor Network), asking if they had my permission to harvest stem cells from his stomach lining and belly area for research. I said “yes,” he had signed the donor card. They explained to me that the procedure of harvesting stem cells had come about after the date he had signed his card, so they had to call for additional permission. I agreed.

A few months later, I received a note from Iowa Donor Network with a forwarded thank you note from someone that had received Jim’s corneas. I received a couple more thank you notes from other recipients of Jim’s “legacy.” I received a touching thank you from a burn victim that had received a skin graft, thanks to Jim. One note was about a page and a half long from a young lady, in her mid-twenties, I believe. She had been in an automobile accident and one leg had been crushed. Prior to that she had been quite athletic. She had gone through numerous surgeries. One of Jim’s knees had now replaced her crushed knee. She was recuperating very nicely and becoming active again. She was very thankful for his donation.

I was pleased, touched and thankful for his desire to help others. Maybe he didn’t provide a crucial life-saving organ, but he did provide parts of himself that could help the quality of life for others. And who knows what answers were provided from the tissues for stem cell research?

Organ and blood donations are additional ways one can leave a legacy.