Many of us have in our power, unbeknownst to most of us, the ability to give a most precious gift....the Gift of Life....a second chance to someone who is dying, or critically ill. At the close of 1996, over 50,000 Americans were on waiting lists to receive an urgent organ for life. Over 34,000 of those were for kidney transplants. Most kidney patients have dialysis (The Kidney Machine) to keep them alive as they wait, even though the quality of life is very poor. Most other organs are much more critical, as people die every day waiting for that life-saving organ. There is no machine to keep someone alive who needs a heart transplant.

I have become an unwilling 'expert' in the field of organ donation, as kidney disease runs in my family through my Dad's side. When my father passed away at 38 from kidney failure in the mid 50s, there were no dialysis machines, let alone the possibility of a kidney transplant. His father before him also had the disease, and passed away at an early age. My dad left my mother and 3 little girls; I was the youngest at 7 years old. A middle sister went into kidney failure at 23, and, since they had started doing transplants about that time, I was adamant that I would donate a kidney to my sister, Ellen. So we went through the tests and I was the best match of my family. We had our dual operation in October, 1971. The operation was a success. Unfortunately, they did not have the drugs as of yet that could keep a transplanted organ from being rejected, and my kidney never did function correctly; it had to be removed after 9 weeks from my sister. From that time on, my Ellen was on dialysis for 20 years.

In the meantime, a few years after that attempt to give my sis back a semblance of normal life, it was my turn to start going into kidney failure. The kind of disease we have is actually a 20 to 30 year slow progression, so I was just showing the initial signs of it then. It wasn't until I was in my late 30s that it was time to go on a 'special diet'...the renal failure diet, and make plans to go on dialysis when the time was right and put my name on a waiting list for a kidney.

I waited 1 1/2 years on that list. It was a race against time, as I wanted so desperately to receive my kidney before I became sick enough to have to go on dialysis. I had seen all the terrible things my sister Ellen had gone through, during all those years of her dialysis. I lost the race, and as my doctor left it up to me to decide when I thought I needed dialysis, I finally acquiesced to starting hemodialysis when I could barely crawl up the stairs to the second floor of my home. Dialysis is a life in limbo; a living hell. But, it is a way station for many people...a nightmare to wake up from once that kidney is received. I still consider myself lucky in that I only had to dialize 8 months before I received that wonderful phone call from Baylor Hospital, telling me to get to the hospital because they had found a kidney for me. I would now have the dubious distinction of being both an organ donor, and organ recipient!!!

It has now been 8 and a half years since I received my kidney from a generous, wonderful, loving family who agreed to donate their daughter's organs after an untimely death. During those 8 years, my wonderful Ellen succumbed to complications and left us. My oldest sister Marcia went into kidney failure, and she too has a successful transplant now of 4 years. My life is, for all intents and purposes, normal. There is one big difference though; I thank God every day for one more day of health. My outlook on life is so different now. I realize so profoundly that life can be snuffed out in an instant; that you really do have to live each day as though it would be your last; that life and health are the most precious things.

My intent in writing this was to bring a personal slant to an 'interesting' but remote topic to most Americans, organ donation. Every state has its own laws and tenets of organ donation, but it is possible to carry a donor card in every state. It's not enough to carry this card; you must let your family know that you intend to be an organ donor if anything happens to you. Family members have refused to give up organs, even though the donor has a signed card in his or her wallet. Discuss this with your family. Make your intentions known. Be a donor. Give the Gift of Life. It is the most precious gift anybody could ever give to anyone.