Representatives of Tennessee Donor Services (TDS) spoke at a recent Kiwanis Club of Newport meeting detailing the importance of organ donation and how the process works.
Hospital Development Coordinator Mike Wells, and Billy Jarvis with external affairs, detailed how they became involved with TDS and what organ donation means to them.
Wells explained his area includes 16 hospitals throughout East Tennessee. His job is to educate bedside nurses as to when they are to make the phone call to TDS. He said only 1% of individuals have the ability to be an organ donor.
“It is an excellent job for me,” Wells said. He said his 22-year-old son Michael was found unconscious. When rescuers tried to establish an airway they found he had choked, and he was later pronounced brain dead. He explained he and his wife were approached by TDS and told what a rare opportunity they had to help others.
He said while he got on board quickly, his wife didn’t. He explained she was praying for their son to live, and she had to come to terms that there were people praying for their children to get those organs, so they could live. Four of Michael’s organs were donated — including a kidney and liver combination transplant. Three lives were saved.
An 11-year-old girl named Rose in Michigan got his heart, and she is now 17. The Wells family has a close relationship with her and they spend Thanksgiving together every year. She is now 17.
“It has healed us and healed them,” Wells said.
Jarvis explained organ donation has been his lifelong cause and passion. He has held two different jobs at TDS and spent more than 25 years there. He explained he came from a family of educators, his mom taught elementary school and his dad was a high school football coach and teacher.
A rare kidney disease ran in his mother’s family, and four of the children in his mother’s family — including his mother — had undergone kidney transplants by age 30. He was diagnosed with the disease his freshman year at the University of Tennessee while he was a baseball player.
He ended up getting his first kidney transplant that year. His father donated a kidney, but a renal artery clotted and the kidney couldn’t be used. A 17-year-old from Alabama died in a car crash and the family chose to donate the kidney. He ended up marrying a nurse, having children and working as a teacher and coach.
He required another transplant years later. His wife took a job as a transplant nurse and he took a job with TDS. Fifteen people in his immediate family have required kidney transplants.
Wells and Jarvis emphasized the importance of having end-life discussions with family members, so the decision is not as difficult, and if you would like to be an organ donor, making sure that your driver’s license indicates you wish to do so.
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