 Organ/tissue donation has touched the lives of those on the PCC campus, and last month, several of them spoke about how they have benefitted from others' decisions to give the gift of life. Seated, from left to right, are Ashley Frank, Janet Adams and Sonja Fox. Standing, l-r, are Dwain Cooper, Susan Leggett, Mack Leggett and David Fox. |
WINTERVILLE�An emotion-filled event at Pitt Community College last month shed light on the importance of organ and tissue donation and the impact it has had on the school�s faculty, staff and students. The program, held in the Raymond Reddrick Building on Sept. 25, was part of a month-long effort by PCC Medical Assisting students to encourage North Carolinians to sign up as organ and tissue donors through a newly-created online registry, www.donatelifenc.org. The event was organized by Marsha Hemby, the college�s Medical Assisting department chair, who spearheaded PCC�s Donate Life activities and became a donor herself through the effort along with 72 others from the college community. �As much as I believed in organ donation,� Hemby said, �I hadn�t signed up for it until I took on this project.� Dwain Cooper, community relations coordinator for Carolina Donor Services took part in the Sept. 25 event at PCC. He noted that 17 people die each day awaiting organ transplants and that a new name is added to the country�s transplant list every 12 minutes. As part of his presentation, Cooper played a heart-wrenching video detailing former UNC mascot Jason Ray�s decision to become an organ donor and the affect it had on those who received Ray�s organs and tissue after he was struck and killed by a motorist in 2007. Following the video, Susan Leggett, administrative secretary to PCC President G. Dennis Massey, discussed how a liver transplant in January 2005 had given her husband, Mack, a new lease on life. The transplant, Leggett said, transformed Mack from a man near death due to complications from Hepatitis C and Hemophilia into a man who was recently lauded for his efforts to educate people on the importance of organ donation. �We�re thankful to God and thankful to someone we have never met,� Susan Leggett said, adding that she and Mack would like to meet the family of the individual who provided Mack�s new liver. Lending additional testimony to the importance of organ donation was PCC Cashier Ashley Frank, who fought through tears to explain how a new heart valve had saved the life of her now 18-month-old daughter, Emily. �She would have been dead in six months,� Frank said, adding that Emily was born with a heart defect and underwent open heart surgery in 2007 at just two weeks old. �� Emily received a human homograft valve that was taken from the heart of a baby that had passed away,� Frank said. �This gift was given through the Donate Life Organization. We are not able to know exactly who the baby was or where he or she is from, but we do know that he or she is Emily�s guardian angel.� PCC student Sonja Fox and Janet Adams, instructional coordinator of Pitt�s Health Unit Coordinator program, also have guardian angels to thank. For Fox, it is her husband, David, who provided her with a new kidney in 2007. Sonja Fox was born with a kidney defect that led to kidney failure and her first kidney transplant in February 1995. Today, Sonja is healthy and studying Financial Crime/Computer Fraud at Pitt. And though she feels fine at present, she is aware of what the future holds and the importance of organ donors. �I�m relatively young,� she said. �I have no denial that another (transplant) surgery is coming.� Adams received her new kidney, which she has affectionately named �Faith,� seven years ago from a friend and former co-worker at Pitt County Memorial Hospital. Three weeks prior to her transplant surgery, Adams said she was extremely lethargic and began falling asleep at the wheel. Her friend, who had moved to Florida, heard about her need for a new kidney and stepped forward to volunteer. The kidney was a match, surgery was successful, and Adams has been going strong ever since. �It has been wonderful,� Adams said. �I just feel so much better. Every day is a definite gift; it�s a gift from God. Living donors are special people.� Nearly 3,000 people in North Carolina are currently awaiting transplants. Hemby said a breakdown of that number reveals that 2,261 North Carolinians are awaiting new kidneys, another 419 need livers, 90 need heart transplants and another 72 need new lungs. She noted that each new donor could potentially save eight lives through organ donation and enhance 50 more through donated tissue. |