The Gift That Heals: Stories of Hope, Renewal And Transformation Through Organ And Tissue Donation

by Reg Green

The stories in this book are about life coming out of death. A police officer, left for dead in a hail of bullets, can golf and fish again; a woman, whose lungs were at one time so diseased that she was dependent on oxygen, has since climbed 5,000 feet to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park carrying a 25-pound backpack; a man who was fighting for his life went on to become an Olympic champion. On one side, they tell of transplanted human organs and tissue transforming lives and, on the other, the inspiring selflessness of the families who donated them at the bleakest moment of their lives. The Gift that Heals is published jointly by United Network for Organ Sharing (www.unos.org) and the Nicholas Green Foundation (www.nicholasgreen.org). It was written by Reg Green, the father of a seven-year-old California boy, Nicholas, who was shot in an attempted robbery while the family was on vacation in Italy. The story captured the imagination of the world when he and his wife, Maggie, donated their son's organs and corneas to seven Italians. United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is the non-profit membership organization that administers the U.S. organ sharing system and focuses on increasing organ donation through technology, education and research. In 2001, UNOS created the National Donor Memorial (www.donormemorial.org) to celebrate and thank America's organ and tissue donors and their families. For information on registering to become an organ and tissue donor, please go to the Donate Life America website (www.donatelife.net) or call 800-355-7427.

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2007

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently got a job in a lab that is part of our hospital's kidney/pancreas transplant program, and while I had always been interested in organ transplants, my job renewed the interest. When I saw this book featured in a magazine, I knew it was a must-read, because my job only involves a small part of the transplant process and this book presented the opportunity to learn about organ transplants from many other perspectives.
This book got its rating merely due to its length. I read Chicken Soup for the Soul books and they are often 2-3 times thicker than this was, and having been to the annual picnic for our recipients, those still waiting, and our program's whole staff, I could probably fill up a volume just as long as this one from the stories I heard there. While I enjoyed reading all the touching stories and a few even brought tears to my eyes, I was left wanting more, but with the HIPAA laws and the secrecy that shields recipients from learning about their donors and vice versa, I can understand that it may have been difficult to get the necessary permissions to print many of the stories that were left out. Plus, not one mention was made of the lab people and some of the others who work behind the scenes to keep the programs in action.

[Hazel McHaffie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this coming back from Devon on the train yesterday as part of my preparation for a novel on the subject of organ donation. It's a collection of short accounts about the actual experiences of families, individuals and professionals involved in organ/tissue retrieval or reception. Very readable and thought-provoking. Makes me wish I'd been more altruistic myself in my younger, more fit, days.

[Jim Gleason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Approached by UNOS to write this book, “donor dad” Reg Green draws on his international network of donor and transplant resources to offer us a soft cover inexpensive book that covers the subject like no other I have ever read. From literally thousands of stories and interviews collected over the years since 1994 when his own son’s tragic death led to a revolution in the Italian organ donor attitude when as a visiting tourist the family donated their son’s organs for transplant there, Reg has selected 42 of the very best for this book. This “Chicken Soup for the Donor/Transplant Soul” type book offers 3 to 5 pages each easy to read chapters of personal stories that cover the donation and transplant experience from every possible view, or so at least it seems. Easy to read doesn’t mean just surface type narratives, so be prepared to feel the deep emotions of the families, patients and medical professionals who share from their hearts tragedy and celebration so often involved in life and death donation and transplant events. These are emotional, first-hand accounts involving a wide range of experiences from pilot to donor to patient and living donor to transplant coordinator to doctor patients, from the famous (liver recipient goes on to Olympic medal winning snowboarder, Chris Klug; basketball great, Sean Elliot) to the unknown, a pastor who received a heart from his parishioner, twins who overcome lives with CF (Cystic Fibrosis) with lung transplants; the inner thoughts of a surgeon facing daily close decisions about accepting organs and the family impact his decisions will make.

The variety of stories cover a full range of donation options (DCD, tissue, corneas, bone, all solid organs), donation process stories told from the perspective of the transplant coordinator and organ transport pilot, sharing feelings, dispelling myths, even the story of challenging organ flight transport in the immediate wake of 9/11 and the no flying ban. Many are stories we may have heard about, but never knew the full story or felt the emotions behind the events – like the bi-annual ski race for children with transplants. The stories cross racial and national barriers and include those who fought and died waiting, but the underlying thread is that they are all stories of hope and especially the donor stories attesting to the healing power of organ and tissue donation.

Repeated in these stories from recipients we read: “This was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It made me realize that everything in life is important. I don’t care whether it’s rain or sunshine. I enjoy every minute of the day.”
And the theme from many donors is: “The act of giving helped us heal from the grief of loss, getting something positive out of tragedy...” which explains the book’s title.

Expect to connect to your own experience and to become emotionally involved in this reading. I found myself, a long time seasoned heart transplant recipient in tears, again and again, reading this beautiful variety of stories. Having been deeply involved in the donor and transplant environment for the same number of years as Reg and his family (1994), I was pleasantly surprised to read stories of so many I have personally encountered in my own life journey. My compliments to Reg Green (and all who shared their stories for this collection) for so successfully carrying out the challenge UNOS offered him in commissioning a book that may well help change the world view of organ donation much as he did back in Italy in 1994 upon his son’s death, a mission expanded over these years to the entire world with his dedication and energy. This is a book to be left out in every transplant center, to be read and felt in one’s heart, and to be shared with anyone you encounter in your own network, a gift that indeed may save a life in that sharing.

Personal note: I was honored to develop a friendship with Reg over the years, even to the point of gifting 500 purchased copies of his book to the International Transplant Nurses Society held 2006 in St. Louis. Reg sat in our hotel room, autographing those 500 copies which were delivered personally by transplant recipient patients the next day after Reg was their keynote speaker over lunch. To make this so very special and unique, I reached out to a worldwide network of transplant patients and donor families, offering them an opportunity to write a one page thank you letter to a transplant nurse. Each of Reg's book received as an insert one of those 500 letters, which, based on the interest of those nurses to see not only the one letter they received in their copy of that book, many are now posted on-line for you and those nurses to read at:
http://www.trioweb.org/resources/than...

see this and more than a hundred other organ donation/transplant related books - many with my personal reviews - at http://www.trioweb.org/resources/book...

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

shares stories of people that gave up their organs so that others could live. insightful.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very inspiring stories. This book made me sign up to become an organ donor.