An Organ Donor's Story: So Fulfilling, He Did it Twice

"不是一般的健康男人"

九年前，杰森戒掉了吸食冰毒近30年的瘾. Since getting sober, he says, he was always looking for ways to help others. 但这似乎是不可能的, after the beating his body had taken over those 30 years, that he'd ever be healthy enough to donate an organ.

"I was not your average healthy living guy,他说. "I thought they'd tell me, 'Your body is a train wreck. Thank you for trying, but it's not going to work.'"

被拒绝捐献的情况并不罕见. 事实上，杰森的妻子后来考虑过捐赠，但没有通过筛选程序. 移植小组告诉她了, although her two kidneys worked well enough as a pair, 她可能活不下去了, 健康生活只用一个.

相比之下，在几个月的医疗评估中，杰森通过了一次又一次的测试. 他接受了CT扫描和核磁共振检查，并为实验室工作提供了“大量血液”. 他花了24小时拖着一个大罐子收集他所有的尿液进行检测.

Eventually, to Jason's surprise, there were no more tests left to pass. 他被认为是一个很好的捐赠者候选人.

Just before Thanksgiving in 2019, Jason got the call. 有人迫切需要一个肾脏，是时候去加州大学旧金山分校做手术了.

一张康复卡和一个肾

Jason spent four days in the hospital after his surgery. 的 微创手术 给他留下了一些小伤疤, 在哪里插入了小型手术器械，断开并切除了他的右肾.

在他恢复的过程中，他剩下的肾脏接替了前一对肾脏的工作. 六周后，他又回来工作了.

他知道在某个地方, someone had his right kidney in their body – but who it was remained a mystery. 他说:“我只知道他们取出了我的肾脏，把它放在冷却器里，然后放在飞机上。.

他给了移植团队一张康复卡，让他们转交给接受者，卡片上还有他的电子邮件地址. 的y told him they'd deliver the card three months after the transplant. Every time he checked his email, Jason looked for an unfamiliar name.

三个月后，邮件来了. His recipient was the mother of two young kids. She had an autoimmune disease that caused her body to attack her kidneys, leaving her dependent on dialysis to stay alive.

Her husband was willing to donate but wasn't a good match for her. 多亏了杰森无私的捐赠, she got a kidney and her husband donated one of his to someone else. In total, Jason's gift created a five-person transplant chain.

As the COVID pandemic began and most people retreated indoors, 杰森的收件人终于出现了. 从密集的透析过程中解脱出来，她的家人买了一辆露营车，开始上路.

One of their stops was in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jason got to meet his recipient and her family, and witness firsthand how his kidney had transformed their lives.

“我们来做肝脏吧!"

Still elated from meeting his kidney recipient, Jason got an out-of-the-blue call from his UCSF donor advocate, 桑德拉·温伯格，看看他怎么样了. “我非常激动，”他说. “我告诉她，‘我们来做肝脏吧!'"

桑德拉显然没有那么热情. 作为一个 肝脏供体, 她说, 是一场完全不同的球赛吗, 无论如何, 他还在从上次手术中恢复. Donating again was out of the question until at least a year had passed.

"All I heard was the part about waiting a year,杰森说。.

Jason settled in to wait, but he knew he'd try to donate again. He attended an informational webinar with UCSF's liver transplant team and, 一年过去了, 开始肝脏供体评估程序. 该团队需要确保杰森可以安全地捐献一部分肝脏，而不会损害他自己的身心健康.

再一次，在所有的测试完成后，他被发现是一个很好的候选人.

In June 2021, he got the call to come in for liver donation surgery. It marked his entry into a very small club; there are only about 100 living donors in the U.S. 谁捐过不止一个器官.

As Sandra had warned him, this surgery was different. 与肾脏捐赠者不同，活体肝脏捐赠者通常需要开一个大切口的开放式手术. 在一般情况下, 与微创手术相比，开放手术意味着更多的术后疼痛和更长的恢复时间.

“他们让你敞开心扉. 我麻醉了10个小时，在欧洲杯竞猜app住了10天，”杰森说.

也, 杰森知道这一点，不像他的肾脏, 哪个是航空寄给收件人的, 他的肝脏被移植到了他正在康复的欧洲杯竞猜app同一病房的另一个人身上.

走廊里的一个重要拥抱

医疗团队敦促杰森尽快站起来走动，以加快他的康复. 在一次慢镜头漫步时，他看到一个女人在走廊里徘徊. In pain and not in the mood for chatting, he still felt drawn to speak to her.

"I asked if she was on the donor or recipient side, and 她说 that her dad had just received a liver transplant,杰森说。. 他问她父亲的手术日期, 她一回答, Jason knew he was talking to his recipient's daughter. 杰森做手术的那天只做了一次肝脏移植手术，她把那个日期定了下来.

的 two exchanged a hug right there in the hallway. “我就开始哭了，”杰森回忆说. “我觉得上帝通过那个女人拥抱了我."

他得知她的父亲得了肝癌. 试图切除他肝脏肿瘤缠身部分的尝试失败了——癌症又复发了. A family member then volunteered to donate but wasn't a match. 杰森决定第二次捐赠，给了他的接受者一个没有癌症的生活的机会.

捐赠大使

Jason doesn't stay in close touch with his recipients, but he's content to know that they're out there in the world, enjoying more time with the people who love them. “我觉得我的角色完成了. I don't need anything else out of this process,他说.

His involvement in organ donation awareness, however, is ongoing. 他是西部捐赠网络的大使, 北加州和内华达的器官采购组织.

他在小组讨论会上发言, 走进募款人的办公室，在集市和车管所安排工作人员，鼓励人们注册成为捐赠者. 当加州大学旧金山分校的移植团队有一个潜在的捐赠者想要和经历过这个过程的人交谈时, 杰森又站了起来.

他一直欧洲杯竞猜网站入口其中，因为他的经历让他看到了一种巨大的需求，这种需求总是存在的，但却很少被公众所看到. “我会在某人的车后面看到一个标志, or someone holding up a poster at a football game, 他们所爱的人需要器官移植,他说. "的re are so many people who are sick and in need."

回顾

What does he tell potential organ donors about the experience? 他说这是他一生中最令人惊奇的事情之一，他也记得当时的挑战.

"It hurts for sure,他说 of both surgeries. "It's the first two weeks that are the toughest.但他今天补充道, other than some sensitivity along his liver surgery scar, he feels the same as he did before donating either of the organs.

的 mental challenges of being a donor can also be tough. Although Jason always felt safe in the hands of his care team, he struggled with the unknowns surrounding the outcomes for his recipients.

“我不知道如果我捐献了器官，他们的身体会排斥它，他们会死，”他说. “或者, 例如, 我会把我的一部分肝脏捐给一个(已经康复的)酒鬼，然后他们又开始喝酒，把它毁了."

Jason credits his wife's philosophy on giving with helping him through.

"One of greatest things I've learned from her is that, when I come across that guy broken down at the side of the freeway, 我的工作是提供服务，而不是决定接下来会发生什么，或者他们如何接受我的慷慨,他说. “我们的工作是给予和放手."