A GIFT FROM GOD
Organ donors furnish second chances at life to area families
By JIMMY GALVAN

"People tell me that if I ever get to meet my donor's family, tell them to come here because this is my family and they want to meet them too. It's a miracle - a gift from God." - Christus Jasper Memorial RN Deb Hunt

For Mark Durand and Debbie Hunt, they personally know about the advantages of organ transplants.

And it's not because they are employees of Christus Jasper Memorial. Both received organ transplants that helped sustain their lives.

"When you lose a member of your family it's bittersweet but once they decide to donate, not only do they help some individual but so many people that surround them," Durand said. "I'm married with two children, nine and seven, and I was on dialysis for 18 months. Your life is so limited with your own dialysis."

He said he had to undergo eight hours of treatment each night.

"That took a lot away from my family," Durand said. "Upon receiving my organ donation, it not only helped me but it helped my family as well. I coach my son in almost every sport he plays and I attend almost 99.9 percent of my daughter's activities. That organ not only helped me but all the people around me as well."

For Hunt, the receiving of her organ was simply "a gift of love."

"The gift came unfortunately during a time of grief," Hunt said. "It's like children, you want part of you to live on and that is why you chose to have children and this is a good way for people who are grieving over a lost one to have that person live on.

"You want that person to live on and how better than to do it than it several people," Hunt said.

Durand received a kidney six years ago after his kidney failed due to an immune disease.

"My disease was found by doing a simple urine test," Durand said.

Hunt also lost her liver due to an immune disease.

Hunt received her phone call on Sept. 20, 2006 and was informed a liver was available for her.

"I was only physically sick for two years but had had some abnormal blood tests for the past five years," Hunt said.

"Many people have asked me jokingly how much did I drink to lose my liver," Hunt said. "But that was not the case as my body just decided to fight it off because it identified my liver as being foreign."

Hunt found out her liver was failing when she went to donate blood and a pre-test came back abnormal.

She points to a picture of her taken in a delivery room of her before her liver transplant that shows her skin color as yellow as she battled her disease.

"Now, everybody looks at me and says you look so much better," Hunt laughs.

"One of our engineers went down and did some work and saw Deb and came back and said 'She's pink," Durand laughed.

Both were aided by LifeGift, an organization that was established in 1987, that is dedicated to recovering organs and tissue for individuals needing transplants in 109 Texas counties in southeast, north and west Texas.

According to LifeGift's website, there are 92,000 people on a list across the United States waiting for organ donations. Of that number, Texas is the third largest of the group falling behind California and New York with more than 5,000 people waiting for organ donations.

Durand said there are many myths when it comes to organ donations.

"Physicians will do all they can to save a life before another physician will designate a prospective donor as brain dead before any organs are harvested," Durand said. "Also, another myth is that the recipient was the cause of why they lost their organ."

Durand stated that donations don't end with just organs but could include tissue and bone marrow.

"One person that decides to donate can assist 50 people," Durand said. "And once the organs are harvested, the body is put back together before it goes to the funeral home.

"I'm a firmer believer in God and that there is a better place waiting for us that is a whole lot better than this," Durand said. "It says in the Bible that we will have new bodies with no illnesses or diseases."

But the need is still strong and Durand and Hunt are living testaments to the power of organ donations.