February 17, 2001, Mike Pollard underwent an extremely rare transplant surgery.  He received five organs at one time; a procedure that had only been done about 80 times in the entire world.  Doctors were very straightforward with Mike at the time.  Since this type of transplant was rare and complicated, the longest anyone had survived so far was about three years.  The odds were not good, but Mike, the father of five children, wanted more than anything to be around to raise his children, so he went ahead with the transplant. 

On February 17, 2011, Mike Pollard celebrated his ten year transplant anniversary, a milestone no one expected him to reach!

Mike celebrated his anniversary by speaking to students at the College of Southern Idaho, something he has done every semester for the last eight years.  However, this time he was joined by the parents of his organ donor.

Mike’s presentation included pictures of his family.  He showed a picture of his oldest daughter, who was 15 years old when he had his transplant, the same age as his donor.  He then showed a picture of each of his children, followed by a few pictures of his grandson.  He wanted the students to understand how much it means to him just to be alive and experience the everyday ups and downs of life.  He told about his rare medical condition and the grim outlook he was given by his doctors. 

Mike then introduced the mother of his donor, Sandra Clutter.  Sandra and her husband Jerry traveled from Pittsburgh to spend the 10 year anniversary with Mike and his family.  Sandra told about her son, Jerryd.  “He would give anything to anybody, including his lunch money,” she said.  He was fascinated with the stock market and would watch the news with his dad each morning before school.  He was a natural with a rifle and had found his niche at school in the rifle club.  On the morning of February 15, 2001, he rode to school with a friend.  A few hours later, Sandra received a call informing her that Jerryd was in an accident and had been taken to the hospital 

She never had any doubt that the hospital staff did everything possible in an attempt to save Jerryd, but it became apparent that he was not going to make it.  She says when she received this news; she turned to her husband and said, “You know they will be asking us about organ donation.  What do you think we should do?”

They both believe strongly in organ donation and although they had never discussed this with Jerryd, they felt that he would have made that decision as well.  They decided to donate whatever they could.  Five of Jerryd’s organs went to save Mike’s life.  His kidneys went to two additional people.  They found out later that his heart valves saved the life of a four year old, and tissue donation went on to help another 117 people.  In all, 121 people benefited from the organs and tissues Jerryd donated.

A student asked her if she saw Jerryd when she looked at Mike.  “No,” she responded.  “When I look at Mike, I see Mike, but I do feel like Jerryd can experience the things he was not able to experience in his life through Mike.  He can experience what it is like to be a father and a grandfather since he never had that opportunity.  And he loved blondes.  That’s probably why Mike has been able to beat the odds.  Jerryd doesn’t want to leave his blonde daughters.”  That got a good laugh from the students.

After class, Jerry stated that, “It’s a sad story, but he (pointing to Mike) is the happy ending.”

What an amazing class that those student won’t soon forget.  Mike has survived against all odds.  He has been able to watch three of his children graduate from high school and two get married.  He plays with a grandson no one ever expected him to live to see.

The Clutters are able to celebrate life as well.  They will always miss Jerryd, but they take joy in getting to know Mike and in learning about the other lives that Jerryd saved and improved through donation.  They encourage people to have that discussion, to talk with their families about organ donation.  More information about organ donation can be found at www.yesutah.org.

Here’s an update on James Jonsson who will be attempting to break the world record for swimming across Lake Tahoe.  James wants to bring attention to the need for people to register as organ donors and to encourage anyone who has not registered to make that decision. 

I will be posting blogs regularly to update everyone about James and his progress toward this goal.  Please help James’ cause by telling your friends about what he is doing.  Share the blogs, post on facebook, twitter, etc.  The more people who follow his progress, Yay!!  That’s the point.  We are trying to spread the word about the importance of organ donation.

In January, James swam a total of 107.67 miles!!  In a 25 yard pool, one mile equals approximately 36 laps.  (Note: a lap is down and back.)  That’s over 3875 laps.  Is that dedication or what?

One benefit of swimming that far and that hard is that it burns a lot of calories.  James is actually having a hard time keeping his weight up.  He is about 10 pounds under his ideal weight for the swim, so he is going to have to increase his calorie intake. 

Training is more than just putting in the miles.  He also needs to make sure he can maintain the pace he will need to beat the world record.  His pace training is going well.  In fact, he can actually hold a faster pace than he will need for about three hours. 

The biggest drawback at this point is a strained neck muscle.  It’s slowly healing, but it takes a little more warm-up time to loosen up his neck.

Good luck James.

Today I attended a press conference at the Utah Department of Health.  Utah was recently honored for the superior performance of its donor registry at the National Learning Congress for the Donation and Transplantation Community.  Only six states received this honor.  The medal was presented to the Utah Driver License Division for their outstanding support of organ donation.

The award was presented to Nannette Rolfe, Director of the Driver License Division, by Dr. David Sundwall, Executive Director of the Department of Health. 

Sheila Baxter also spoke about how organ donation has affected her life.  Many years ago, one of her aunts donated a kidney to another aunt who was in kidney failure and she made the decision at that time to be an organ donor. 

Several years later, Sheila’s son Tyler turned 16 years old and she went with him to get his driver license.  Tyler asked his mom about organ donation and they discussed what this meant.  Tyler decided that organ donation was a good thing and he marked yes on his license.  Three short years later, Tyler was involved in a fatal accident.  Sheila stated that she was grateful Tyler had made that decision on his license as this would have been a difficult decision to make otherwise.  Sheila then thanked the Driver License Division for all of their hard work.

This is what the registry is all about.  It is so important to mark yes on your driver license or online at www.yesutah.org so that if something happens to you, your family is not put in the position of making a very difficult decision at an even more difficult time.  Thanks Utah Driver License Division for all that you do.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a sweet woman named Betty.  We talked about her husband, Jim, who was a cornea donor when he passed away last year.  It was an honor for me to talk with her about Jim.  It is always humbling for me when I hear someone express joy for the recipients whose lives are better because of their loved one’s gift.

Jim and Betty had been married just one day short of 52 years when he passed away.  He was 71 years old.  I could feel her love for him come through as she told me about him.  She told me that Jim had moved to Utah from Indiana when he was only 17 years old.  It took a lot of courage for him to move out here by himself at such a young age,  but he wanted to join the ROTC program at the University of Utah.  They met when he was 19 and she was 18.  Together they built a life together and had three children

When Jim passed away, Betty she was asked about cornea donation.  She knew he had ‘donor’ on his driver license and she readily agreed.  “Before this, I didn’t realize how valuable donation was, but now I say take what is needed when I am gone.  Two people can see because of Jim,” she said.

 “He came with nothing and he left being honored on a monument,” she told me, referring to the Celebration of Life Donor Monument on Library Square that honors organ, eye, tissue, blood and living donors.  She took a picture of his name on the Monument to remind her and their children of this selfless act.

This poem was written by six year old Tryn Bailey in memory of his father.  It is really beautiful.

TOGETHER WE CAN…SAVE LIVES 

BY TRYN BAILEY 

MY DADDY’S NOT HERE

HE LEFT ME LAST YEAR.

HIS HEART WAS SO BAD

HE HAD TO BE SAD.

BUT HEAVENLY FATHER SAID.

“YOU HAVE TO COME WITH ME.”

SO HE LEFT HIS ORGANS

 SO OTHER PEOPLE DON’T DIE.

NOW HE’S MY HERO

BECAUSE HE’S STILL ALIVE.

IF WE ALL GAVE OUR ORGANS

WHEN WE HAVE TO GO,

THEN WE WOULD BE HERO’S

AND OTHER PEOPLE WON’T DIE.

TOGETHER WE CAN ALL DO THE SAME

SO SOMBODY ELSE’S DADDY

WON’T HAVE TO GO.

What does swimming and organ donation have in common?  For swimmer, James Jonsson, they are both things he is passionate about.

James is a marathon swimmer who is currently training to break the world record for a lengthwise swim across Lake Tahoe.  He is doing this swim to bring attention to the need for others to register as organ, eye and tissue donors.  His challenge to everyone – “If I can break the world record, will you commit to being an organ donor?”

James first recognized the importance of organ donation in the early ’80s when his father, who was also a competitive open water swimmer, went into kidney failure.  A transplant in 1986 gave his father back his quality of life and he was able to continue competitive swimming.

In 2003, James became acquainted with donation from both sides when his son tragically passed away.  He was an organ donor and that decision has impacted several lives.  James has exchanged letters with some of the recipients and is grateful that organ donation allowed something positive to come from his son’s death.

The Daily News of Open Water Swimming recently published an article about his upcoming swim.  James plans on making this 22 mile swim on August 4.  To take James’ challenge and register your wishes to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, log on to www.yesutah.org.

Joanne and Kevin celebrating before the transplant.

I got up really early this morning and drove to the University Hospital!  I wanted the opportunity to see two incredible people before they were wheeled into surgery.  Their names are Joanne and Kevin.

Joanne needed a kidney transplant and her health was slowly getting worse.  Her daughters were willing to donate a kidney to their mother, but they were each ruled out as a possible donor.  Joanne knew that without a transplant she would need to start dialysis soon and the wait for a kidney could take years.  Then Joanne got another offer for a kidney; her ex-son-in-law, Kevin.

The first time I spoke with Joanne, I learned that she tried to dissuade Kevin from donating a kidney.  She didn’t want him to have to take time off work or deal with any other interruptions in his life, but Kevin was insistent, even contacting her tranplant coordinator to learn more about the testing process, donation and the recovery.  Prepared with this information, he went back to Joanne and again offered to give her one of his kidneys.  When Joanne realized how serious he was about this decision, she gratefully agreed.

Shortly before surgery!

When I asked Kevin about his decision to donate, his response was very straight forward, “Mom needed a kidney.  I don’t want her to go on dialysis, so I’ll do what I can to help her.”  He then went on to say that he hopes to be able to educate others a little more about organ donation.  “So many people think you have to be a blood relative to donate,” he said.  “That’s not the case.” 

They both want to educate others about the importance of donation, so they gave an interview to the Salt Lake Tribune the day before surgery and allowed me to take a picture of them at the hospital shortly before surgery.  If you are interested in learning more about living kidney donation, visit the www.yesutah.org website.

Maybe you have noticed the big yellow signs located at some of the driver license offices throughout the State.  They were put up several years ago to let everyone know how incredibly giving and compassionate the people of Utah are.  At that time, we had reached that magic number of 1 million Utahns who had registered their wishes to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.   Unfortunately, over the years those signs have began to fade and lose their attention getting appeal!  A change was definitely needed. 

Luckily, we got on it before the cold weather arrived.  On one of the last warm days of the season, we took a few hours to visit the Driver License offices at West Valley, Fairpark, Farmington and Ogden to replace the aging signs.  If you drive past one of those office, look for the bright yellow sign.  The new sign sports the Yes Utah taxi cab, but more importantly, it reminds people to say “Yes” when getting a driver license or ID card and it includes the website address in case someone has some questions about donation. 

Many thanks to the great people in Utah who have said “Yes!”

I read an interesting article the other day in the Salt Lake Tribune.  It was titled, “The Adrenaline Rush of a Haunted House.”  The article talked about how our bodies have a real, physiological response to fear, even when we know the thing causing fear is not real.  It is that adrenaline rush that draws people to haunted houses.  Reading about our response to fear reminded me of an editorial that Alex McDonald, Public Relations Director at Intermountain Donor Services, wrote last year.  The editorial was titled, “Organ Donation Isn’t Scary” and it debunked many of the myths that people have heard about organ donation.  It also got me thinking about what is scary. 

Organ donation isn’t scary; waiting for a transplant is scary.  Right now there are almost 109,000 people on the national waiting list.  Each one of those people knows the wait might be long and there is no guarantee that they will even get the transplant in time.  Years ago, I was at a meeting where a man told about his transplant.  He was a young man whose heart, very unexpectedly, began to fail.  As he became sicker, he had to be hospitalized for an extended period of time.  While in the hospital, he met another patient who was also waiting for a heart transplant.  Unfortunately, that patient passed away without getting a transplant.  The speaker expressed how it is always difficult to get the news that someone you know has passed away.  Added to this was the very real fear that it could be him.

Saying yes to organ donation is easy.  Getting the facts is also easy.  Log on to www.yesutah.org and make life a little less scary for someone this Halloween.

I spent the evening yesterday at Cottonwood Creek Retirement and Assisted Living. It was their 27th anniversary celebration and they chose to promote organ donation as part of their celebration!!

We provided a program for the residents as they ate dinner. A few of the contestants for Miss Murray donated their time and talents to help with the program. A sweet 90 year old woman then told me she was from Holland and had once been Miss Holland. Meeting her was a real treat for all of us.

Paul Cardall spoke of his heart transplant and then played the piano. The music was incredible. There were also copies of Paul’s new book “Before My Heart Stops” available for sale.

The program ended with a jazz duo playing some very relaxing and easy listening music as people finished eating their desserts. One member of the jazz duo is waiting for a liver transplant and spoke a little about what it is like waiting. It was the perfect ending to a great program.