Jason Wynia found out he needed a heart transplant May of 2008. After having breathing troubles, doctors found Wynia’s heart working at 10%, while the normal heart works at 65%. After heart surgery, doctors installed a heart pump to keep him alive until a transplant become available. Wynia says he went through a sea of emotions during his heart transplant.
Mark and Gail Gallagher’s 26-year-old daughter, Kate, was on the transplant list awaiting a donor liver when she suffered the cerebral hemorrhage that ended her life in March 2012. Despite the fact that Kate had liver disease and was on the waiting list herself, she saved three lives through the donation of both kidneys and her heart, which went to a 12-year-old girl. For her parents, continuing to share Kate’s story in the years after her death is about more than keeping memories alive.
Organ donation is a sensitive subject. The end of someone’s life becomes a new beginning for someone else. Gail Gallagher didn’t think her daughter would be one of those people. Her daughter, Kate, suffered from a rare disease and needed a liver. She was originally put on the transplant list to receive the organ. However, she ended up being the organ donor herself.
Melanie Anderson knows her brother Dirk’s death in a 2013 car accident has enabled a young boy to see. She knows that a firefighter received a skin graft and several cancer patients have received bone marrow — all because her brother was an organ donor.
Wes Cook recalls vividly a motorcycle ride he took three years ago. It was to be his last. Cook, a Parker resident for 12 years, was also planning to get rid of his skis, because he was almost certain he would never use them again. Meanwhile, he was compiling notes in a book for his wife filled with details about finances and how to winterize the house.
Kate Gallagher’s kindness and compassion now live on through others. Her heart was transplanted into a 12-year-old in Denver and one of her kidneys was given to a woman in her 60’s outside Colorado. Her other kidney went to Tony Lobato of Nucla. For six years, he needed a new kidney.
West End Schools District Board of Education President William “Tony” Lobato will this week meet the mother of his kidney donor. Lobato, 62, said he waited six and a half years on the transplant wait list.
Gail Gallagher’s daughter Kate was placed on a waiting list for a liver transplant in 2009 after being diagnosed with a rare clotting disease. Kate never received a liver before passing away, but she did become a donor. Gallagher is passionate about organ donation and on Thursday met the recipient of her daughter’s kidney, William “Tony” Labato for the first time.
Bob Campbell of the Colorado Springs Independent talks to people on the street about their thoughts on organ, eye and tissue donation.
La Prensa news sits down with Vinny Castilla and Donor Alliance to talk about organ, eye and tissue donation and National Minority Donor Awareness Week.
