Area residents reflect on Transplant Games, life as organ recipients

Toledo Free Press

Those who are fortunate enough to be in good health often take life for granted. For Northwest Ohioans Allison Herr and Tonya Gomez, that is not the case.

Herr, a 9-year-old living in Metamora, was born with biliary atresia and was on the transplant list for a liver by the age of 1. After waiting almost two years â€" and nearly losing the youngest of their three children â€"the Herr family got a call in 2006 notifying them a match had been found.

“We got a call after being on the waiting list for one year and nine months,” Allison’s mother, Jenny Herr, told Toledo Free Press. “She got the new liver, had some minor ups and downs the first year, but today she’s completely healthy and active. She’s your typical 9-year old.”

Although thrilled her daughter is now thriving, Jenny said it’s difficult to know the organ donor who gave Allison a liver â€" and the gift of life â€"had to die.

“It’s hard to put into words. We’re celebrating life, but there’s suffering on the other end of it,” Jenny said. “What are the right words? When you talk to a donor, the donor families are so grateful to see us. [But] it’s hard to accept that, when you know deep down, our donor family, the first thing they think would have to be, ‘What would my child be doing now?’ Those feelings stay with you.”
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