To some people it was just a plane that went down and six lives lost. But to many of us touched by organ donation, six heroes lost their lives on June 4th trying to save another life. When I heard the news last week, I immediately thought of the people who helped me – Seven years ago, they were on a plane between Chicago and Mason City, Iowa.
Whether we’re waiting or post-transplant, so many of us know our transplant teams: Our surgeons, our procurement coordinators, our nurses, our transplant coordinators and physicians. Some of us are lucky enough to meet the pilots who shuttle them to their destinations. For so many of them, their life’s work is to get us breathing, give us a steady heart beat, get us a new liver, or get us off dialysis. Their life’s work is to save our lives.
They don’t always choose this field of medicine – but sometimes they see the good they can do, and the service they can offer, and the lives they can impact. They may see an obligation to put their abilities to their best use, and their careers take this direction.
These people can be rousted from their comfortable lives at all hours of the day or night, and called upon to help others. They face incredible stress that every move they make over the next several hours has a life on the line miles from where they are – that any mistake or misstep could result in the death of that person, miles from where they are. Many people in this field do it for a number of years before they “burn out”, or they can no longer deal with the constant disruption in normal life.
They dedicate part of their lives to saving lives. They are called from their duties, their families, their passions to hop on a plane or emergency vehicle, with little consideration for their own risk, to help someone in need. And also to help another family – they help one family in crisis deliver the gift of an organ to another family, to avert that family’s crisis.
Yet, in this tragedy, no one ever forgot or neglected the goal they died for – the life they were trying to save.
Betty was the name of the beautiful donor whose lungs perished with these six heroes. Betty’s daughter, Daphne, worried for the intended recipient of her mother’s beautiful lungs. Daphne worried that there might be a seventh victim of this tragedy.
These teams help not only recipients waiting for organs – they help families like Betty’s and Daphne’s wrestle some good from a desperate situation – they help turn some of the pain of death into hope. On June 8th, another team from University of Michigan chased another opportunity given by another precious family to save the man who had been destined to receive Betty’s lungs. The recipient is recovering. Daphne knows that what started with a selfless gift from her and her mother, ended well after all.
It takes a unique type of person willing to deal with the stress these six men dealt with, and keep their focus on saving lives. People like these saved my life. The ones who helped me, I will never, ever forget – nor will my family or friends. Likewise, there are people who will never, ever forget Dr. David Ashburn, Richard Chenault II, Rick Lapensee, Dr. Martin Spoor, Dennis Hoyes & Bill Serra.
(Tributes and bios and news stories are available via these links on the University of Michigan website.)
I’ve met so many transplant teams – they are truly amazing people. Last week we lost six of these team members. I know the entire transplant community throughout the country is mourning.
I think there is a special place in heaven for people who do this – I just wish they hadn’t found it so quickly. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, and all who knew them.
Steve Ferkau
Chicago, IL
Two lungs from a team like this – April 2000
