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Front Page Article in the Cincinnati Enquirer (local newspaper)
Monday, April 25, 2005
Gifts in death
save others
The decision to donate organs often a deeply emotional
one
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One fact stays with Jennifer Shih and Angi Birkle every moment of every day: Someone had to die for them to live.
Shih, 30, of Covington had a heart transplant seven months ago. As an exhausted pediatric cardiologist, she gave herself an echocardiogram, an ultrasound for the heart muscle she had just learned the previous month during a fellowship. When Shih saw fluid around her heart, another doctor was able to diagnose her with giant cell myocarditis, a rare but often fatal disease.
Birkle, 36, of Anderson Township, has lived with her double-lung transplant for almost six years. After numerous and increasingly worse upper respiratory infections, Birkle was told she had asthma. Her condition only worsened with medication until doctors said she would die without a double-lung transplant. Her donor was a 14-year-old who died in a bicycle accident.
"I still get very emotional about it," Birkle said.
"You think about what that family gave up, and you never take life for granted again," Birkle said.
Both were presenters Sunday at an annual ceremony to honor families who donated a loved one's organs, sponsored by LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, the Cincinnati Eye Bank and U.S. Tissue and Cell.
In 2004, LifeCenter Organ Donor Network had 49 organ donors from the Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana.
Kim Gipson was one of those honored at the ceremony. She donated the eyes and tissues from her husband, Tom C. Gipson Sr., who died March 23, 2004, after two strokes. His body was then given to University of Cincinnati for study.
Eight relatives at the ceremony joined Kim Gipson, because making the decision to donate was a deeply emotional one for the family, she said.
"We all knew that's what he would have wanted," she said. "We had a conference and came to that conclusion."
The active fisherman had been a contractor with the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority and had recently refurbished his North Fairmount home. Tom Gipson also loved helping other family members renovate their own homes.
"He gave a lot," his wife said.
A donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people. Heart, lung and liver transplants save the lives of those who suffer from end-stage organ failure. A kidney transplant can free a patient from endless dialysis treatments. A pancreas transplant can end daily insulin injections and additional health problems for diabetics. A transplant of the eye's cornea can restore lost sight. Bone transplants can fuse spines, save limbs or repair joints. Donated skin can alleviate pain and infection for burn victims. And donated veins, arteries, heart valves, tendons, ligaments and more can be used.
"You realize this is a bittersweet position," Shih said of being a transplant recipient. "Someone had to die in order to give me a second chance at life. And even though it's not my donor family that I'm talking to and shaking hands with today, it's nice to say thank you."
Currently, 288 patients in the area are waiting for organs.
E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com