Pain and anguish overwhelmed Eva Perez after her son, Hernan, died in an accident. She decided to donate her son's organs, viewing the act as a way to keep him alive in some way. The donations provided some relief from her suffering. She did not know how they would change her life and that of her family.
Indeed, Perez never expected to be an active promoter of the organ donation program operated by Donate Life America, a Richmond, Virginia-based non-profit organization with chapters nationwide.
"It didn't matter to me what I had to do to keep Hernan alive, whatever the means, and that one (donating his organs) was the only way available to do it," Perez recalls, 10 years after her son's death.
Perez didn't know many specifics about organ donations. She didn't know how many people on waiting lists to receive one.
All Perez knew was that she and her family set out one winter day to go to the Big Pine Mountains to have fun in the snow.
"Hernan was already dressed for the snow," Perez says. "We weren't, and we stayed in the car getting ready. He didn't wait for anybody. He grabbed his board and ran off, but slipped and hit his head very hard. In my desperation, I ran to the highway and stopped the traffic. Among the people was a nurse, and she helped us. I also saw all the efforts made at the hospital to try to save him, but it wasn't possible. The next day they told me that his brain was dead because it had become inflamed and oxygen wasn't getting to it. Then other people from that organization came to ask me if I wanted to donate his organs, and I accepted."
Perez learned, over time, that the gift of her son's organs was widespread.
"I didn't know that I had done something so good," she says. "It wasn't until a long time later that I realized that I had helped many people, but I had no idea whatsoever about the impact involved in being a donor, how much it can help other human beings."
Perez now knows that one of her son's kidneys went to a 45-year-old man and the other to a 37-year-old woman. His liver went to a nine-year-old girl, and his heart to a two-year-old boy.
Perez got a chance to meet one of the recipients of her son's organs.
"Three years ago I met a young woman who is now 19 years old, the one who has his liver," Perez says. "Her name is Megan. She's American and lives in Rancho Cucamonga. She's very well. She was able to graduate from high school and is now going to college."
The experience has grown for Perez, who says she now hopes to convince other Latinos that some of the perceptions held about organ donations are false.
"It's false what we Latinos think that they let us die so they can use our organs," he says. "That's not true. I have been a witness that the doctors and hospital staff fight to the end to save lives."
But, when the end comes, "donating organs is the greatest act of love that can be done, because when we die we don't need anything anymore, and we can help so many people who are on waitlists and who will appreciate it," Perez adds.
As many as 58 patients can benefit from one organ donor, Perez notes — and the list of patients awaiting such a gift is long.
"Nationally, there are 110,000 people waiting to receive an organ, and the number increases every day due to accidents or health problems," Perez says. "The worst thing is that there aren't enough donors, and Latinos are the ones who need the most help."
For Sergio Gomez, who received a kidney transplant, organ donation means a gift of life, a second chance.
"Organ donation means giving life again to those of us who need it," says Gomez, who received a donation from his sister.
"I believe it is the greatest expression of love for another person, who needs it at that moment or who has needed it for some time, in order to keep living with their loved ones."
Gomez said he was saved from death four years ago, thanks to a doctors' timely detection that his kidneys had stopped growing and were not functioning properly. He eventually developed other illnesses, such as high blood pressure.
"I went to see a family doctor and he discovered that my blood pressure was extremely high," Gomez says. "Then he did other tests, and when I went back to see him, he told me I was in danger of dying at any moment because my blood pressure was too high, at almost 240. In other words I was a walking bomb, plus he said my kidneys weren't functioning. Then he urgently sent me to the hospital."
Gomez received dialysis treatment while he awaited the kidney donation from his healthy 36-year-old sister.
Gomez said the gift motivated him to live a normal life and also inspired him to participate as a volunteer in the Donate Life Organization, spreading the word about the importance of transplants and donating organs and tissues.
Visit donatelife.net for more information in English and Spanish.
Miriam Reyes is a writer for Impulso.
Photos by Impulso.
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