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December 2, 2007

Ceremony honors organ, tissue donors

By Debbie Robinson

news@joplinglobe.com

St. John’s Regional Medical Center and Freeman Health System teamed up Sunday afternoon for a ceremony to honor more than 100 families of organ, eye and tissue donors throughout the area.

Family members of 110 donors received red roses at the ceremony in the atrium at Freeman Hospital West.

Similar roses bearing the names of the donors will be on the Donate Life float in the Tournament of Roses Parade next month in Pasadena, Calif.

Choking back tears, Kit Starr told the story of his 19-year-old brother, David, who was fatally injured in a car crash in 1991.

“We thought if there is nothing that can be done to save him, then it’s important for us to make the most of what was left of his life,” Starr said.

David’s heart went to a man in Salt Lake City who was expected to live for only a week, Starr said.

“Two months later, the guy was back at work,” he said.

Another life-changing moment happened in 1998 at the U.S. Transplant Games, Starr said. “It was a life-changing experience,” he said. “That’s when I truly saw what organ donations can do.”

From that experience, Starr said, he decided to get tested and placed on a kidney donation registry. He was a match.

“It went to a 31-year-old guy with a 2-year-old baby girl,” Starr said.

Donor recipient Monica Montgomery, of Kansas City, shared her story about receiving a donor knee after shattering her knee bones in a friendly soccer game.

Doctors were unsure if she would ever walk again, she said. She used crutches and a cane, and wore a knee brace.

“Every step taken was with great difficulty,” she said.

The donor knee returned her life to normalcy, she said.

Her family members have been the recipients of cornea and tissue transplants, she said.

“I’m very grateful to be here,” she said.

Montgomery will be one of 20 donor recipients who will be on the Donate Life float in the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Rob Linderer, chief executive officer of the Midwest Transplant Network, said 652 organ transplants were done in the area last year.

Linderer, a cornea recipient, said a donor recipient who will represent the state of California on the Donate Life float received his cornea from St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

Debbie Linnes, president and chief executive officer of St. John’s, said the life of one person can help 50 other lives.

There are 97,000 people on waiting lists for organs, she said.

“Clearly, we are making great strides nationally, but there’s more work to do,” Linnes said.

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