Published: October 05, 2009 02:21 pm      

Donate life

New show spotlights lifesaving organ donation

PLAINFIELD — The series premier of “Three Rivers,” a television show on CBS, spurred local transplant recipients and donor families to gather together.

Liver recipient Lynn Livingston wanted to celebrate the occasion with a viewing party.

“I had invited my friends and family then called Bobbi and Carl Drury,” Livingston said. “Carl is a heart transplant recipient and Bobbi is an event planner so she said we could have it here.”

Livingston received her lifesaving liver transplant May 27, 2008. She had been suffering from Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC).

“We waited for 54 days after I got on the list,” she said.

The Drurys opened their Plainfield home to other transplant recipients, their families, and representatives from Indiana Organ Procurement Organization (IOPO).

“Carl and I talk to kids about organ donation,” Livingston said. “Its so important to educate people.”

“IOPO is now my passion,” Livingston said. “And I have met a lot of wonderful people through the organization.”

They also invited Dana and Andy House, a donor family, who’s daughter, Jordan, became a donor after suffering complications stemming from meningitis.

Dana and Jordan House had spoken with Livingston during a Christmas Eve service at Plainfield Christian Church.

“We found out that Lynn was on the list — Jordan and I were both just bawling,” Dana said. “Lynn was telling me she might need me for home healthcare. When we were in the car Jordan looked at me and said, ‘Mom aren’t you glad we are donors.’ It was three months to the day later that I lost my daughter.”

The House family had tried to direct donate their daughter’s liver to Livingston, but she was not a match. Jordan was a match for someone else, however. Her organs were used to save the lives of four people.

Dana said its been a healing experience for her family to volunteer for IOPO and to get to know those who have had transplants.

“This has become my support group,” Dana said. “I get through the day because of these lovely people.”

Prior to viewing the show, Lynn Driver, CEO of IOPO, gave the group a little background on organ donation in Indiana and Pittsburgh.

“Pittsburgh became the Mecca for liver transplants because of Dr. Tom Starzl,” Driver said. “The first long distance transplant was from a donor right here in Terre Haute, back in ‘78 or ‘79.”

Driver said he met Starzl as he came off the plane.

“A 16-year-old boy had died in a moped accident — his mother was a nurse,” he said. “She gave her consent and told us to ‘take everything you can take.’”

He said Starzl never forgot that first patient and spoke of him often at different speaking engagements.

The television show is set in Pittsburgh at Three Rivers hospital. It is a medial drama that looks inside the emotionally complex lives of organ donors, recipients, and surgeons.

After the show, the group discussed their initial reactions to the new drama.

“I think they really put donation in a good light,” Driver said. “The important part is that it is getting families talking.”

Liver recipient Leslie Bryant attended the viewing party with her husband, Mark.

“The unrealistic idea that I saw is that people have to be in the hospital and dying to get a transplant,” Mark Bryant said. “People are usually at home and they just wait and wait.”

Livingston said, “They really couldn’t show it exactly the way it is because it would take too long.”

“I think the conversations the doctors had hit home a lot,” Drury said. “Something they didn’t touch on was the wait and the recovery pain.”

Driver did warn those watching that in the future there might be people who don’t make it.

“You know there are so many on the list who don’t get a transplant,” he said. “I am sure they will have someone who doesn’t make it.”

Leslie Bryant said that is why she feels so blessed to have received her liver transplant on June 2, 2008.

“I mean why was I so lucky,” she said.

“Three Rivers” can be seen at 9 p.m. Sundays on CBS.

The corporate offices of IOPO are at 3760 Guion Road in Indianapolis. For more information, call 888-ASK-IOPO (888-275-4676) or visit the website at www.iopo.org.

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Online:

www.iopo.org

www.DonateLifeIndiana.org



brenda.holmes@flyergroup.com