Last week I was invited to Saratoga Springs, New York, by CTDNY / the Center for Donation and Transplant New York – Vermont, the Organ Procurement Organization that covers 30 counties in New York and Vermont. I was asked to speak at an “Education Day” to a few hundred nurses, medical professionals and OPO professionals. And, Laura and I were invited to attend an awards dinner afterwards. I’ll post more about the session and dinner soon – but first I’m going to post about what happened last…
At the awards dinner, they gave out three community service awards. One of the awards went to the New York State Police Aviation Unit stationed at Albany International Airport. In accepting their award, their commander explained that they are just doing their job… He brought several of their police and civilian pilots and a few dispatchers to the stage and accepted the award on all of their behalves…
As he was presenting their award, the CEO of CDTNY, Jeffrey Orlowski, explained that from time to time, they need to quickly move a transplant coordinator somewhere in their region, and may not have the 3 or 4 hours to drive there – and with a call to this group of dedicated men and women, they will have a plane or helicopter in the air within minutes…
Their commander explained that they are just doing their job – that when they do this kind of work, they know it is a life saving mission – and he, and his pilots and dispatchers find it more gratifying than some of their other missions…
Afterwards – I grabbed my big picture of Kari that I used during my talk, and I walked over to them…
The whole group of them were standing and chatting after the dinner – I introduced myself, then I “introduced” them to Kari… I told them that I know that they are “just doing their jobs…” But, there are some of us out in the world who will always look up to them as heroes…
I told them what it feels like to breathe with Kari’s lungs, and how I feel about her and the gift she gave me… I told them that Kari’s precious lungs came to me on an aircraft with pilots “just doing their jobs…” They flew a beautiful procurement nurse named Michele, and a surgical team from Chicago to Mason City, Iowa – then flew them back to me with Kari’s gift… Granted, it was probably an expensive, chartered aircraft – but like all of them are, they were pilots “just doing their jobs…” They are ready on a moment’s notice, to help save a life…
After we chatted for a while, they invited me and Laura to visit their hangar to see their operation before we caught our flight back to Chicago. Seriously – for a chance to see a bunch of helicopters and planes up close on a personal guided tour – who wouldn’t jump at that?!?!
There are so many players in organ donation – so many people that make organ donation happen… There are so many people who are “just doing their jobs.”
Sometimes they need to see what “just doing their jobs” means from the perspective of someone breathing with new lungs, or someone whose heart is beating strong & steady, someone no longer jaundice or someone who is no longer enduring dialysis for a dozen hours every week… They need to see what “just doing their job” means to someone who no longer wonders if they will be here next month…
Whether it was the nurses, the RTs or PTs or other medical professionals – or the hospital relations and transplant coordinators and other OPO professionals I was speaking to – or the pilots and dispatchers I met at the dinner – they all may be “just doing their jobs” – but to so many of us who are alive because they just did their jobs – some of us will never see less than heroes…
April is National Donate Life Month… April is also very special to me for a reason I will be posting about in a few days… Last week, I had the honor of speaking to an awful lot of people involved with organ donation – a lot of people whose lives are dedicated to doing everything they can to make sure that gifts from people like Chloe and Kari are delivered to people like Melissa and me and so many others… People who, like those mentioned above, are looked upon by the recipients of these gifts as heroes… They so often struggle in approaching families at a particularly devastating moment in their lives, and asking them if they would consider saving other lives… The loss those families are experiencing touches their lives too, and in the face of that loss – I have to imagine that it can be very difficult to ask that family whether they would consider another person, and another family…
You can make it easier on your family and everyone involved by telling your family how you feel now – and by signing up on your state’s registry and committing to being an organ donor when you’re finished with your precious organs in this life…
Other state’s Donor Registries
p.s. Yes – the planes and helicopters were awesome!!!
