Local News - November 2003

Organ donor beneficiaries to speak at ceremony

Published November 5, 2003

By SARAH GRANO, Staff Writer

————————————

Six days short of his 12th birthday, Garrett Terrell died of a diabetes related stroke.

Because he was an organ donor, he helped others go on living after his death. 

He will be memorialized along with 12 other organ donors in a ceremony at Lincoln Medical Center on Wednesday.

Myra Terrell, Garrett Terrell’s mother, will speak at the ceremony. She lost her son on Sept. 22 of this year.

“A friend asked me if I would speak. Her concern was that it was still fresh,” said Terrell.

“I said, ‘Yeah, it would be hard because it’s fresh, but I think a year from now, or ten years from now, it would probably still be fresh.”

The decision to donate her son’s organs came easily to Terrell. She had discussed the issue with her son prior to his death.

“He understood what an organ donor is,” said Terrell. “He was just the type of personality that he would share what he had.”

Garrett Terrell’s name will be etched in stone and placed outside of the hospital building beside the chapel alongside 40 other memorial stones.

Other participants will share their own stories about organ donation during the ceremony.

“They’re all unique, and they’re all really quite beautiful,” said Elaine Haynes, vice president of patient services at LMC.

Recipients of organ donations will also speak about their experiences.

Brent Jenkins has a kidney disease that has left him too tired to play with his 21-month-old son.

“It’s hard to come home and hear him say ‘Daddy play, Daddy play,’ and not be able to wrestle with him or swing him,” said Jenkins.

His wife is now pregnant with their second child.

Jenkins spends his time either at work or resting, but that will soon change.

Doctors told Jenkins that he needed a kidney transplant. They warned him that it could be up to three years before a kidney was available to him through a waiting list, even though he has a common blood type.

Luckily, Jenkins’ brother offered to donate a kidney. The two were a perfect match and a transplant could take place.

“He’s making a sacrifice of himself,” Jenkins said. “I felt that there were a lot of prayers answered at that time.”

After the transplant, Jenkins’ energy will increase, and he will be able to play with his son and his new baby.

“It will be like having a second chance at life,” Jenkins said. “I’m ready to have that energy. I’m ready to get out there and play with my son and do the things I want to be able to do.”

Jenkins knows that he is blessed to have found a matching organ donor.

In North Carolina alone, 3,057 people are waiting for organ donations, said Haynes.

Some people feel nervous about donating their organs. For others, it is a subject that doesn’t even cross their minds.

“Families have not taken the time, nor the forethought, to sit down and say, ‘if something happened to me, my desire would be that I would go on living through helping someone else,’” Haynes said.

Becoming an organ donor is as easy as signing a Life Share of the Carolinas uniform donor card, which is available at the hospital, or having a small red heart placed on your driver’s license as an indicator.

—————

Staff Writer Sarah Grano can be reached at 704-735-3031 or sgrano@ltnews.com

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

Terms and Conditions