I recently had the opportunity to view a documentary titled 65_RedRoses that chronicles 23-year-old Eva Markvoort’s journey to lung transplantation. Eva, like my daughter, suffers from cystic fibrosis. It was a heart-breaking film to watch. My daughter isn’t quite two and hasn’t had any classic CF lung involvement yet, so to watch Eva struggle to breathe and to hear her cough so violently was frightening. I can tell myself that Eva wasn’t diagnosed as early as Maggie was and that treatments weren’t as advanced in her childhood as they are for Maggie’s. And that is all very true. But what’s also true is that CF means something very different for each person who lives with it. Siblings can even have very different outcomes and present very different symptoms. And CF is progressive. Sometimes, you get to age 23 like Eva, and your life depends on someone else dying, and giving you their lungs.
Signing up to be an organ donor has been a no brainer for me since I first got my license and could check the organ donor box on the back. It seemed obvious to me that if I didn’t need my organs, someone else could be saved by them. This isn’t true for everyone it seems. Only 13% of adult Americans are registered organ donors. Meanwhile over 100,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for a new organ. And one single person who donates their organs can help save up to 50 people on that list. That would be 50 miracles that you would leave behind, an incredible mark to leave on this world and on the people whose lives you saved as well as the people who love them.
Every day, I do what the CF specialists say in an attempt to keep my daughter off that waiting list. But if new drugs and treatments don’t come through, and her lungs become damaged despite our efforts, she may very well need a transplant. And I hope that by that time, more healthy Americans are making the generous choice to give life through organ donation. If you are one of those people that thinks about organ donation, but isn’t quite ready to sign up, I urge you to watch 65_RedRoses to see how organ donation changed one person’s life. If you are an organ donor and you want to convince others to sign up, get a copy of 65_RedRoses and spread the word about it. Education is the best way to get anyone on board with any idea. What we don’t know is scary. When we understand, we can make better decisions. And who wouldn’t decide to save a girl like Eva or my Maggie?