Organ donation saves lives. Each year, over 39,000 people receive life-saving transplants and over 1.5 million others are healed by the gift of tissue donation. While many do receive, 22 people die each day because of the shortage of organs for transplant. It is important for all people to consider being an organ and tissue donor. Anyone, regardless of age or health conditions, can register as a donor at RegisterMe.org—and commit to giving a gift that could heal another desperately in need. You could save the life of someone like John—a Connecticut husband and father to three. Here is John’s story as told by his daughter, Angelica.
Early in 2018, our Dad, John, was diagnosed with liver cancer and it was decided by his doctors that in order for him to get better, he would need a liver transplant to save his life. This hit our family hard. Our dad is one of those people who goes out of his way to do anything for everyone and never asks for anything in return. He loves his family and friends and just enjoys life itself. After finding out no one in our family was a match, we reached out to the community in search of a living donor.
We patiently waited in search of a living donor until October 2018, but could not find a good match.
Later that month, our Dad received a phone call that changed all of our lives. He would receive a liver from a deceased donor. This was a miracle for our family. Our Dad received his liver transplant that night. That transplant and his donor saved his life.
While we do not know who is donor was, we know that that person gave us our dad back. For that, we are so thankful.
In October 2019, we celebrated one year since his transplant surgery! Since the surgery, he is doing extremely well and we are eternally grateful to the New England Donor Services and Donate Life Organizations. We created Team Hribko for the Annual Blue & Green Walk/5K in support of my dad and to help increase awareness of donation.
To learn more about the Blue & Green Walk and show support, please visit www.bluegreenwalk.org