Thankful for a Kidney
Read more articles on Let Me Share With You and Holidays.November 23, 2006
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
November 23, 2006
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
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Last Thanksgiving, I visited a relative whose daughter was suffering from severe kidney failure. The father was gone and neither the mother nor the brother was a match. The woman had been on a transplant list for almost four years, and dialysis, after 48 months, was become more and more difficult on her strained system.
Finally, in the middle of the night in May, a call came. A kidney that was a match was being air-rushed here from another state. It was the best news for her, but sadly, the kidney donation was the result of a man who had committed suicide.
These last six months have not been easy for this cousin. There have been several major difficulties, not the least of which landed her back in the hospital for 6 weeks during the summer. But now her medication and doctor appointments have been reduced and she’s actually living more of a normal life. By this time next Thanksgiving, she may be involved in a new career, and her future looks 200% brighter than it did a year ago.
Organ donation is the kind of thing one really never thinks about unless it’s time to renew the driver’s license, or if someone you know needs a transplant. Once you become more aware about the whole process, it’s overwhelmingly discouraging. On top of that, the fact that someone needs a transplant in the first place means that they must have gone through some very traumatic times, so hope and optimism are probably already in short supply.
It has to feel somewhat strange to know that a vital part of your physical body-one that your life is literally dependent upon-has come from someone else, someone who is no longer in this world. With the knowledge that the individual chose to end his life, it’s got to be even more unsettling. There will always be the deepest of gratitude, but at the same time….
The family of the man is probably glad that his donated kidney was able to give someone a second chance at life. He also was here last year at Thanksgiving, possibly with no thoughts of ending his life just yet. Who knows what a year will bring for any of us? What we could never even consider today, we may be extremely thankful for next year, so let’s not underestimate anything.
Amy, today’s piece goes out to you; I’m sure that this Thanksgiving is very special. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, as well.
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