Organ donations save lives
Each April, the organ transplantation community sponsors campaigns throughout the country to increase awareness of the critical need for organ donations. Through this article, Jerry Jackson, a 42-year Malibuite, has chosen to make a personal appeal to our Malibu citizens, and their families and friends, to become organ donors. Jerry wishes to share his two life-saving organ transplant experiences with our community—a liver transplant at the UCLA Medical Center on May 14,1997, and a kidney transplant at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz. on May 18, 2010.
The crisis exists because of the severe shortage of life-giving organ donations. Currently, more than 114,000 gravely ill individuals are on the National Waiting List. While that number grows daily, one person on the list (or one that was removed because he or she was too sick to receive a transplant) is dying every hour. More than 2.5 million Americans die annually. Yet, shamefully, only a total of 14,148 living and deceased persons donated organs nationally in 2011. (Statistics provided by United Network For Organ Sharing, March 2012.)
It deserves acknowledgement that while Jerry lay near death during a three-and-a-half week coma at UCLA, a team of doctors evaluating him was determining his fate. Some of them believed Jerry was too sick to survive a transplant. One suggested inserting a bolt into his skull. Another, Malibu’s own Dr. Leonard Goldstein, UCLA hepatologist, persuaded the committee to accept his opinion “that all this man needs is a liver transplant.” A few days later, UCLA transplant surgeon Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil and his team performed the seven-hour liver transplant surgery.
The last thing Jerry remembers before slipping into his coma was the then Associate Pastor Roger Newquist of Malibu Presbyterian Church praying over Jerry. While he and five men from church prayed, he anointed Jerry’s forehead with oil. Jerry was mentally alert enough to know what was taking place at that instant, but he wondered why. Moments later Jerry left this conscious world.
Months later, Carol Jackson, Jerry’s caregiver and wife of 34 years, came home emotionally taken back after running some business errands. She had gone to an area library, and while searching through the obituaries, she came upon the name and photograph of Jerry’s donor.
The donor’s family called their son ‘Lil John. He was an 11-year-old boy who had drowned in a swimming accident. After a great effort, Jerry and Carol located ‘Lil John’s family and became friends with his mother by correspondence.
During the liver transplant procedure, and with the strong anti-rejection medications that are given to the patient, it is quite common for the kidneys to fail. Thirteen years following his liver transplant, Jerry was in Arizona waiting for a kidney transplant. He spent three months on dialysis, managing to stay alive until the call came from the University Medical Center. Then, finally, there was a healthy kidney waiting for Jerry. The donor, named Randy, was a 49-year-old man who had died of a stroke. Jerry is now exchanging letters with Randy’s mother and father.
Jerry and Carol share their story with the Malibu community to bring attention to and emphasize the desperate need for organ donations. Like Jerry Jackson, it could be you, or your husband or wife, or your mother or father, your son, daughter, or grandchild.
It could be you or your loved one needing a life saving organ donation at this very moment. Jerry would not be alive today were it not for the unselfish act of two grieving families, who out of the depths of their sorrow made the decision to donate their son’s organs so that others, usually strangers like Jerry, might live.
Jerry and Carol hope you find their story one of hope and assurance, both physically and spiritually. And it can be one for others, if we would all sign a Department of Motor Vehicle donor card or put that pink dot on your driver’s license, or sign up on line or telephone the Donate Life California Registry.
For more information, visit donatelifecalifornia.org.