July 9th started out as any other day. It was Kevin’s birthday and he had dialysis in the morning. On dialysis days he’s not very energetic so I wasn’t sure what we would do to celebrate. Around 3:30 in the afternoon we received a call from University of Kansas transplant team telling us they had listed him for kidney only. This was a small victory but not enough in my opinion because we had been told that the wait time for kidney only would be 36-48 months and we only had about 18 months of wait time under our belt.
However, as someone who is always advocating and pushing for resolution, I made a post which was shared 30 times providing Kevin’s information in case somebody had to make an end of life decision and wanted to donate their loved ones organs. You see people with shirts and signs and billboards so I didn’t think much would come out of my post.
Little did we know that in less than one week’s time over 4 different families would see our information and be in the sad position to remove their loved ones from life support and donate their organs. YEP, you read that right FOUR PEOPLE all within 24 hours!!
We haven’t confirmed who our organ came from yet but when we got our transplant call 6 days later we were told “Kevin was listed as the priority on the organ” which is often considered code for it was donated in his name.
So many times social media gets a bad rap but in our case Social Media saved my husbands life!!! (More on that once we confirm that this is what happened when we make contact with our donor family in the future).
So, the next time you see a post where someone is requesting a match for their family….SHARE IT! It could save a life, just like it did for Kevin!!
I know Taylor played a huge part in this with our conversations. Someday I’ll share that with his mom.
Yes!! So much yes. Even though we didn’t get his kidney, he was who sparked this post! The Gift If Life that he gave is soo greatly appreciated by both our families and the families who he donated too!