By Hugh O’Donnell
Jack O’Donnell is lucky to be alive, and he knows it. One Monday last year, he went to the hospital with stomach pain, and discovered that his body was shutting down at the age of 32. By Wednesday, Doctors had determined that Jack’s liver was the source of the problem, and he needed a transplant if he was going to make it. Unfortunately, Jack was considered too sick to be a good candidate for the surgery, and to make matters worse, he was one of the millions of young Americans without health insurance. Jack was given last rites, and his family was told that he had 24 hours left to live.
Fortunately, Jack’s story doesn’t end there. At the last moment, a donor was found. Despite the risks, Strong Memorial Hospital performed the transplant. Jack woke up in Rochester with a new liver, 98 staples, and a deep feeling of gratitude. “I’m alive for two reasons,” Jack says. “A family, at a very difficult time in their life, made the decision to donate their loved one’s organs, but also if it hadn’t been for the incredible research being done at Strong, I wouldn’t be alive.”
With the support of his friends and family, Jack spent the next few months on the long road to recovery. He knew that he was incredibly lucky, and came to realize that he had to give something back. Jack became a volunteer for Upstate New York Transplant Services to get out the message of the need for organ donation. He gave speeches, appeared on local morning shows, and filmed a commercial as well as educational videos used in local high schools to promote organ donation. He even participated in the Strong River Walk for Transplant Services in August of last year, to show people that organ donation does save lives and lead to recovery. But Jack wanted to do more to not only support donation, but also the research that develops life-saving transplant surgeries. “If I had been anywhere else in the country, they would have said I was so sick that they couldn’t have performed the surgery.”
Jack and his family founded the Transplant Miracles Foundation to raise awareness and desperately needed funds for research programs at Strong Memorial and other Western New York hospitals. On Saturday, September 27th, the Transplant Miracles Foundation will be hosting its first fundraising event, The Treasure Island Family Picnic, from 2 PM to 6 PM at the West Side rowing club and Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse. Local and national sponsors, including Labatts USA, Urban Valet, and Allentown Athletics, have signed on to help make the event a success, but in Jack’s words, “if even one person comes, then it’s a success.” To learn more about the event, and the Transplant Miracles Foundation, please visit their website.