By Sarah Blackmore
Bonita and Dex Pelley stand in Bridie Molloy’s, a lively pub in downtown St. John’s, wearing a wedding dress and a suit. These are the same outfits they wore 24 years ago, the first time they said, “I do.”
Now they’re doing it all again, but this time, with a change of heart. Read the article in CBC News.
By Richard Damas
WORCESTER, Mass. – A warm welcome Sunday afternoon for Christ Jubilee International Ministry Pastor Edith Stevquoah at her home after she underwent surgery for a kidney transplant earlier this fall. Read the article in Spectrum News 1.
After a lifesaving lung transplant, Glen Hohn then had a life-threatening bout of COVID-19. However, thanks to his care team and some music therapy, his lungs improved, his confidence grew and he was discharged after an extraordinary experience.
Watch this story from Nebraska Medicine.
By Jennifer Mayerle
BEMIDJI, Minn. — A retired firefighter WCCO first met back in May is now home for the holidays. Walt Lindahl and his wife Amy have spent the past eight months in Rochester as Walt dealt with severe lung disease.
Four months ago, he underwent a double lung transplant. Walt and Amy went back home in Bemidji recently with a new appreciation for the little things in life. Read the article in WCCO CBS News Minnesota.
By Scarlett O’Hara
LEBANON, Ind. – Every family has its own holiday traditions. For one Lebanon man, Christmas Eve has become an extra special anniversary as he gets ready to celebrate the day he was given a second chance at life.
You can’t exactly unwrap a new liver on Christmas. Nonetheless, it’s Ernie Verbarg’s favorite gift he’s ever gotten. He waited eight months on the transplant list last year with a rare, progressive liver disease called “primary sclerosing cholangitis” – until a Christmas Eve miracle. Read the article in NewsNation.
Retired physician Charlie White lay in a hospital bed at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. From his room, he could see the helipad. Although very ill — he estimates weeks to months from death — he was keenly alert to each landing.
“Helicopters were coming in, and patients would come out on stretchers,” he recalls. “And then one landed, and a doctor came out. Holding a box.”
In that box was the liver that would save Dr. White’s life. Read the article from Geisinger.
By Chayil Champion
A year ago this December, a remarkable story of love, sacrifice and family was approaching its culmination within Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
On that day, Nanette Zumwalt — a wife, mother and entrepreneur who had been battling polycystic kidney disease (PKD) — was preparing to undergo a life-changing kidney transplant. Her journey to that point was not straight forward; it took an unforeseen path of fate, love and generosity. Read the article in UCLA Health.
Around 100 people considered becoming donors for 10 kids on the waitlist
By Colette Bordelon
DENVER — In September, Children’s Hospital Colorado asked healthy adults to consider donating part of their liver. An estimated 100 people responded, meaning the 10 children on the transplant waitlist will likely receive the life-saving gift. Read more from Denver 7 News.
By News 12 Staff
A Plainview man is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his double lung transplant.
When Gary Klausner was 10, he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. He says the life expectancy in 1975 for someone with the disease was around 16. Watch the full story from News 12 Long Island.
By Matt Soergel
Pat O’Shaughnessy calls it his mission — his determination to donate one of his 64-year-old kidneys to a 31-year-old man with so much to look forward to.
He failed in that mission, he believes, and his voice breaks as he admits that.
But in that failure, he probably saved his own life. So he’ll be around to continue the mission, he says, and he vows to stick with it until it succeeds. Read the article in the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union.