COURT HOUSE – One thing that strikes when speaking to 75-year-old Joe Pratt is how young he sounds.
“That’s because I have young lungs,” he’s quick to reply.
Pratt, who lives in Marmora, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) when he received new lungs Sept. 15, 2013. The only thing he knows about the donor is that the person was 23-years-old. “It (the transplant) is going exceptionally well,” he added.
Chis Wimberg, a 51-year-old from Cape May Point, got a new kidney July 4, 2007, and remembers seeing fireworks over the Hudson River. “I’ve felt really good since then,” said the donor recipient who suffers from AA Amyloidosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. He spends a lot of time volunteering these days, appreciative of the gift of life given to him.
Bill Carlsen, a 63-year-old Ocean View resident, also spends a lot of time supporting the Gift of Life Program. He’s the recipient of a liver transplant and counts his blessings of being able to watch his children grow up.
The success stories of these three are not one that everyone on the organ waitlist gets to experience, however. Since 1974, Gift of Life, Philadelphia, the organ procurement organization for eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, has helped save 38,000 lives through organ donation, and enhanced over half a million lives through tissue donation.
Religions Support Organ Donation
Currently in the U.S., according to the Gift of Life Donor Program, 21 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. Over 6,100 men, women and children in Gift of Life Donor Program’s region and more than 123,000 in the U.S. are currently waiting for a donation.
“One of the most common misconceptions about registering as an organ donor is that one’s religion does not support it,” said John Green, director, Gift of Life Donor Program community relations.
According to the Gift of Life Program, all major religions, including Catholicism, support organ donation. Pope Francis described the act of organ donation as “a testimony of love for our neighbor” when the Vatican hosted the European Organ Donation Day in October, 2014, according to Green.
“The choice to donate,” Green noted, “often made at a grief-stricken and terrible moment in life is one that is far-reaching and greatly beneficial. One organ donor can save and enhance the lives of up to 50 others, a gift that is impactful to the recipients, their family members and the community on a whole.” (Eight people can be helped through organ donation and over 40 through tissue/cornea donations.)
Throughout the year, Gift of Life works with houses of worship and faith leaders to educate congregations and the community about organ and tissue donation.
On Oct. 28, Gift of Life will host a Clergy Summit to bring together clergy leaders and invite new ideas on how to increase donation awareness.
Also, from Nov. 13-15, Gift of Life will provide free organ donation materials to community members in celebration of National Donor Sabbath (NDS). NDS is a national initiative to help dispel myths about organ donation, and discuss religious beliefs about the donation process.
Transplant Testing Hard
“The testing for the transplant was the hardest part,” said Pratt. “I was listed on the organ transplant wait list and tried to have a somewhat normal life. I tried to get out of the house. It was a chore, but I did it. The real hardship is on the caregivers. I guess I never realized how sick I was, but my family, they really struggled with it.”
Pratt spent much of his life serving the United States as an officer and major in the Army for 20 years. He had two tours in Vietnam and received a Bronze Star Medal of honor from the President of the United States. He also was an instructor at the Airborne School in Ft. Benning, Ga., where he served as part of the Parachute Infantry Regiment and trained paratroopers.
When Pratt retired in 1978, he never thought he would be facing the biggest struggle of his life. He noticed over the next few years that his breathing became progressively more restricted. He pushed on and tried to continue life as normal, but eventually he became so out of breath that he knew something was very wrong. He went to his doctor and they diagnosed him with COPD, a chronic and obstructive lung disease that is characterized by poor airflow.
After several years had passed, and “what seemed like a lifetime of tolerating the suffocating symptoms of the disease,” Pratt decided to see a specialist in 2012. Recognizing how deteriorated Pratt’s health had become, the doctor put him on oxygen 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Later that year, Pratt had a bad exacerbation due to the COPD and was admitted to a local hospital.
After recuperating in the hospital, the doctor wanted to send Pratt home. “This was the last straw,” he recalled, “especially for my daughter. My family saw me suffering and knew I couldn’t just go home and continue life this way.”
His family decided to take the situation into their own hands, and after a lot of research, his daughter found a specialist that she thought may be able to help her father.
“The doctor wanted me to go home,” said Pratt. “There didn’t seem to be anything more that they could do with me when I was in the hospital. My daughter didn’t accept that answer. My new doctor examined me and said something that I never thought I would hear: He told me that I was going to need a lung transplant.”
After six weeks of waiting, Joe was given a second chance at life, a new pair of lungs. He said that he would like to meet the family who gave him this tremendous gift. He is so overwhelmed with gratitude, knowing that even when the donor family was faced with such a great loss, they still chose to help others.
“Today, I am able to do things that I never dreamed of,” he said. “I finally feel free to live my life without being sick, tired or tethered to an oxygen machine.”
Since receiving the gift of life, Pratt devotes much of his time to volunteering for Gift of Life, educating the community about the importance of being an organ and tissue donor.
He volunteers regularly and speaks at high schools and churches throughout New Jersey to increase organ donor awareness and encourage people to register as donors.
He also formed Team Sky Soldier and participated in April with his family and friends in Gift of Life’s Donor Dash.
“I was even able to finish the 3K (kilometer) walk (slightly less than two miles),” he said, proudly indicating how far he has come.
“This year, Team Sky Soldier raised more than $4,500 for the Donor Dash that will be used for educational outreach.”
Third Call Is a Winner
Wimberg was diagnosed with AA Amyloidosis in June 1996, and told that he would need a kidney in about 10 years. AA Amyloidosis is a subset of a disease that produces malformed proteins that bind together and can attach to any organ. There is no known cure, and it can eventually cause organ failure.
“Almost to the day, I was put on the transplant list for a kidney,” he said. He was also put on dialysis, undergoing treatment three days a week for about four-and-one-half hours each session.
Wimberg, who also has been disabled with rheumatoid arthritis since 1987, started taking a new medication (Enbrel) in the late 1990s that allowed him to get corrective surgeries. It also was helpful in suppressing the AA Amyloidosis.
So far, he’s had five ankle surgeries, bilateral total knee replacements, bilateral wrist fusions and hand surgeries, and a neck fusion. He’s recovering from a total neck fusion.
“When you get put on the wait list, they tell you that you can get a call anytime,” Wimberg said. He got his first call within a week of being put on the list, but wasn’t ready for it. A second call came about a year later, and the third call came 18 months later. That was the winner for him.
“I had a match from Washington State,” he said. “When you get a transplant, you can write a letter to the recipient. I received a letter and I know that the kidney came from a young man whose name was the same as mine, who was as tall as I was. He was in an accident.
“New York Presbyterian Hospital sent a team to get the kidney, and I got the call to come to the hospital,” he recalled. “After the transplant, I immediately felt better. Everything started working right away and I was home a week later.”
Wimberg said there is a great need for kidneys, and spends a lot of time speaking on behalf of Gift of Life at health fairs, events and high school education sessions. He also is a driver for Good Samaritans, driving disabled and seniors to doctor appointments and the pharmacy.
The program operates under Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Cape May. He also is an usher for Cape May Stage and involved with Tedx Cape May.
Support Group Meets Monthly
According to Carlsen, their support group, named Cape Atlantic Transplant Support Group (C.A.T.S.), meets in the Jenkins Room at Shore Medical Center, 100 Medical Center Way, Somers Point, at 4:30 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of most months (not November, December or August).
“We are sponsored by The Gift of Life Donor Program to volunteer at local events,” Carlson explained, “to provide information to the public about organ and tissue donation. It is open to anyone who has a connection to Solid Organ Donation and more information can be obtained by calling 609-624-0853 or 609-646-1222, or by contacting www.facebook.com/CapeAtlanticTransplantSupport.
“We still need donors,” Wimberg added. “People can register when they get their driver’s license or state ID.”
About 45 percent of people in Cape May County with a license or ID card have registered to be a donor.
When people question if they want to become a registered organ donor, Pratt said, “Look at me. I’m a product of what happens when people are donors. It saves lives. Why would you not want to do it?”
Carlsen added that anyone can register as an organ and tissue donor at donors1.org. “It only takes 30 seconds,” he said.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.
