Gifts of life

Hospital, transplant agency honor organ, tissue donors

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer

March 13, 2006

LOMA LINDA - They came from all walks of life. Young. Old. A firefighter. A housewife. And a young girl who aspired to be a schoolteacher.

None of them knew each other, but in death, they all shared one thing: They all donated their organs and tissue to give others a second chance at life.

On Sunday, dozens of families and recipients of organ and tissue donors across Southern California were honored by Loma Linda University Medical Center and OneLegacy at the university's Wong Kerlee Conference Center.

"Because a family said 'yes' to organ donation, I was able to receive the gift of life," said Jeff Hedrick, 53, of Canyon Lake.

In 1999, he was diagnosed with end-stage liver failure, forcing Hedrick and his wife, Nancy, to make some critical decisions.

"We decided to regroup and see what our options were. There weren't too many. We needed a transplant," he said.

Hedrick's surgeon at UC San Diego Medical Center put him on a waiting list for a new liver.

Five years went by, testing the couple's resolve.

"It was terrible. My wife had five surgeries while we were waiting, two on each hip and one on her back," Hedrick said after Sunday's ceremony. "I was taking care of her, and she was taking care of me."

On Aug. 16, 2004, Hedrick got the call he had been praying for. The next morning, he was in the hospital receiving a healthy liver from the late 35-year-old Eric Brown of Altadena. Brown was such a close match that Hedrick said he only needs to take a small amount of anti-rejection drugs daily to fight off infection.

"I always felt the call would come. I had maybe one month left (to live)," said Hedrick, who hangs a framed photograph of Brown in his home.

Last year, 1,223 people in the United States received organs and tissue, said Tom Mone, chief executive officer of OneLegacy, a nonprofit organization certified by Medicare to procure organs and tissue across Southern California.

More than 200 hospitals contact the organization daily with organ and tissue referrals, Mone said.

There were 400 tissue donors in this region last year, giving everything from corneas and skin to heart valves, Mone said. In 2005, a record 65 percent of families who were asked agreed to donate their loved one's organs and tissue.

Sunday's ceremony was one of four held in Southern California this month. Among the speakers in Loma Linda was Reg Green, whose 7-year-old son, Nicholas, was shot in a botched robbery in Italy in 1994. Green and his wife donated their son's organs and corneas, leading to an increase in awareness of the shortage of donors - a phenomenon known as the "Nicholas Effect."

Dr. Joseph Cohen, chief forensic pathologist for the Coroner's Bureau of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, received OneLegacy's Life Bridge Award for his "meaningful and extraordinary impact on organ and tissue donation and transplantation."

He is the fifth recipient of the award in the Inland Empire. Dr. Frank Sheridan, chief medical examiner for the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office, was the first.

"They are able to protect evidence while still permitting the recovery of organs to save lives," said Mike Thomas, hospital-services coordinator for OneLegacy. "They've been able to fulfill their obligation as well as honor a family's wish and save lives. It's quite an accomplishment."

The ceremony concluded with Life Bridge pins given to 43 donor families before their loved ones were honored with a video montage.

Outside, cooing white pigeons were released from wicker baskets, their wings fluttering into the gray-clouded sky.

As the birds took flight, musician Terry Harrington played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on his tenor saxophone. He provides the sound for Lisa Simpson's saxophone on the television show "The Simpsons."

Harrington received the gift of a second chance at life several years ago when he had a heart transplant, allowing him to continue giving the gift of music.

Copyright © 2006 Los Angeles Newspaper Group.

This article posted April 1, 2006.