Organ gifts urged, recalled

Valley churches to observe National Donor Sabbath

By Barbara Anderson / The Fresno Bee

November 13, 2005

Every day in the United States, 20 people die waiting for an organ that doesn't become available to them.

And each year, the gap widens between the supply and demand for organs.

Today, in honor of National Donor Sabbath, congregations at St. John's Cathedral on Mariposa Street and Saints Rest Missionary Baptist Church on East Florence Avenue will take the opportunity to remind worshippers about the lives saved by organ donation.

Mass at St. John's begins at noon. Saints Rest Missionary Baptist holds services at 10:45 a.m.

At Saints Rest this morning, JePahl White, 30, of Fresno, will talk about receiving a kidney. He waited seven years, undergoing kidney dialysis three days a week before his transplant operation in June 2004.

"I have a new lease on life, and I live life to the fullest every day," said White, owner of a music production company.

White said he will thank his second cousin, Anthonette Hilliard of Fresno, for the gift of her son's kidney.

He and sister LaShelly White, 34, of Oakland, each received a kidney from Darryl Hilliard, 20, of Fresno, who was shot on a southwest Fresno street.

White said his cousin's donation is "a lasting legacy -- a gift."

Anthonette Hilliard, who worships at Saints Rest, said she will be at the Donor Sabbath services.

Hilliard said she knew her son would want to be an organ donor and would be pleased to know that JePahl was one to benefit from his gift of life.

"It's very joyful that my son is a hero now because he saved lives," she said.

Hilliard said she learned her son's organs could be donated from staff at University Medical Center, where he had been taken with his injuries. They informed her of her options and put her in touch with organ-procurement representatives.

University Medical Center in Fresno received an Organ Donation Medal of Honor on Thursday for reaching an organ donation rate of 75% or higher this past year.

The award was from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. HHS recognized the hospital's achievement to raise awareness of the vital importance of organ and tissue donation and to help encourage donation, said Esther Padilla of Fresno, outreach coordinator for the California Transplant Donor Network.

UMC was one of the first hospitals in the country to sign up for the federal government's Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative in 2004 to increase organ donation rates at hospitals.

Raising awareness about the need for organ donation also happens family by family. Stella VanderVeen, a Fresno real estate agent, uses any chance to talk about organ donation. Her son, Elias Ahumada, 33, of Hollister, needs a kidney.

Ahumada began dialysis six years ago after high blood pressure destroyed his kidneys.

VanderVeen, 55, said her son "desperately needs a kidney. "And there are thousands of people like him. I run into so many people who are in the same situation -- waiting and waiting."

Ahumada hopes his wait for a kidney will be over soon. Younger brother Anthony Ahumada, 23, of Hollister, is being tested to see whether he can donate a kidney.

The greatest need for organs nationwide is for kidneys, Padilla said.

In California, 20,084 people are waiting for organs and, of those, 14,716 need kidneys, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

On this Donor Sabbath, Lisa Lindeman, 47, of Fresno, wants people to sit down with loved ones and discuss organ donation.

People can make their wishes known about organ donation by joining the California Organ & Tissue Donor Registry, which opened in April. People can join the registry by going to the Web site donateLIFEcalifornia.org.

Seven years ago, Lindeman's brother-in-law, Neil Holmes, 55, a Fresno fire captain, collapsed with a brain aneurysm.

Holmes had always helped others, Lindeman said. The family knew "it just made perfect sense that he would become a donor."

Doctors recovered Holmes' lungs, heart, pancreas, liver and kidneys for donation.

A lower lobe of the liver was donated to an 18-month-old girl, Lindeman said.

"He was able to help a lot of people that day."

The reporter can be reached at banderson@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6310.

Copyright © 2005 The Fresno Bee.

This article posted December 12, 2005.