As he struggled for air, cystic fibrosis patient Mike Adams and his wife called the pastor who married them so he could be administered last rites.
Speaking Wednesday to families who have made organ donations on behalf of a loved one, Adams recalled how he’d “become a prison of my recliner” and had insisted on going to a local emergency room so he wouldn’t die at home.
Then, just as he lost all hope, a nurse came into his hospital room and told him he had a “very important phone call.”
It was his doctor.
“A pair of lungs have been found for you,” Adams recalling his physician telling him, giving him “a burst of energy.”
Up until that point, “I had been lying there like a zombie for two weeks,” he said.
After the surgery, he went from 17 percent lung capacity to 86 percent.
Adams, appearing at an event organized by Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Sandra Hutchens and the One Legacy organization, held up a photo of his donor, Tory, a 15-year-old boy who was on his way to sing Christmas carols at a local church when he was killed.
“Some guy drove up in a truck and said, `You’re wearing the wrong colors,’ and shot him,” Adams said.
The boy’s mother, who lost a relative to organ failure, had previously discussed with her son the possibility of donating his organs if he died.
“Five people received organ donations from Tory,” Adams said. “I’m very close to his mother to this day. The first time we met, she put her hand on my chest to feel his lungs.”
Roberto Wilkes, who received a cornea transplant that gave him back his vision, did not know his donor.
Wilkes recalled how he began losing his vision in his late 20s until he could no longer drive his son to his Little League games. “And I couldn’t play catch with him,” he said. “The next thing I lost was my ability to drive.”
Wilkes eventually got his driver’s license back, “and now I’m teaching my son how to drive.”
“I’m thankful and blessed because of the decision my donor’s family made,” Wilkes said.
Hutchens told the gathering of organ donor families that her office handles about 5,000 death investigations annually.
“Those are more than just numbers,” Hutchens said. “That’s 5,000 people with friends and family who look to us for answers.”
As the county’s chief coroner, Hutchens said her office deals with death, but “we also improve and save lives … with our partnership with One Legacy.”
Last year, there were 296 tissue donations and 173 organ donations in the county, she said.
“This is a phenomenal success,” the sheriff said. “A single donor can benefit up to 50 people.”
One Legacy officials at Wednesday’s event unveiled a Tiki-style theme for the organization’s Tournament of Roses parade that will include written messages from donor families that will be placed in rose vials.
–City News Service