Sons' deaths create bond, push for organ donation

The Gaston Gazette | Diane Turbyfill
(Photo by Mike Hensdill/The Gaston Gazette) (L-R) Tricia Erickson and Gale Entler both lost their sons to illness at the same age. The mothers have bonded and are working on a project together. Here, they look over old photos of their sons and their sons' friends Tuesday afternoon, September 18, 2012 in Gale's home on Kirby Avenue in Gastonia.

Patricia Erickson and Gale Entler watched their sons grow up together.

They bought all the groceries to feed the seemingly bottomless stomachs of the boys and their friends.

They cheered at the ball games, and smiled with pride at the Ashbrook graduation ceremony.

But when their sons both died this year at the age of 27, the Gastonia women created a bond they never asked for but now firmly rely on.

Lifelong friends

Blake Robinson and Andrew Erickson met in third grade at Gardner Park Elementary School.

The boys had different personalities and backgrounds, but they bonded immediately.

Andrew played football. Basketball was Blake’s sport of choice, though he loved watching pro and college football, his mother, Gale said.

They were both on the swim team, and they loved to play kickball.

“These boys were about fun,” Gale said.

Despite their different demeanors, the boys were like two peas in a pod, according to their mothers.

“They were the life of the party. They were the storytellers,” said Patricia.

Both mothers knew the other child well, but their strong bond wasn’t built until tragedy struck this year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hawthorne woman's liver donation saves cousin, the 'big sister' she never had

Image
North Jersey | Lindy Washburn CARMINE GALASSO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jennifer Carrino, left, and cousin Nina Walsh showing off their surgery scars. Nina donated a portion of her liver to her older cousin, likely saving her life. Over the last year, Jennifer Carrino had come back from the brink of death, survived internal bleeding and spent weeks in intensive care. Then came the hard part: asking her cousin for a part of her liver. In April, doctors told Jennifer that without a transplant she probably had a year to live. Jennifer, 37, was already on transplant waiting lists in two states, but it was going to take too long, they said. She needed to think about a living donor. Jennifer turned to her younger cousin, Nina Walsh, a slip of a woman with an outsized sense of generosity. She asked her to consider giving up part of her healthy liver. The procedure, pioneered 20 years ago, pushes the ethical boundaries of medicine because it goes against a basic tenet of medicine to “first do no ha...
Read more

Six Years Running: Marathon Team Races To Raise Organ Donation Awareness

Image
The members of Spare Parts 6, a relay team in this year's Vermont City Marathon, are running to raise awareness about organ donation. The team is part of the Transplant Donor Network, and it's the sixth year the network has had a team run the marathon They range in age from their mid-twenties to their mid-sixties. Their ranks include teachers, physicians, administrators and a former state commissioner.  Together, they make up the team Spare Parts 6 in this year’s Vermont City Marathon, and they are running for a cause: to raise awareness of organ and tissue donation throughout the state. The five relay members — Dr. Harry Chen, Dawn Bissonnette, Shaina Kaye, Dr. Bridgett Marroquin and Jean DeMaroney — are part of the Transplant Donor Network (TDN), which is affiliated with the University of Vermont Medical Center. Bissonnette and DeMaroney are transplant recipients. The team wears bright fluorescent yellow shirts with “Donate Life” emblazoned across the front, ...
Read more

AUSSIE SURGEONS HOPE TO PERFORM FIRST STOMACH TRANSPLANT

Image
News 7 Melbourne | Karen O'Sullivan FIRST ON 7: Surgeons who pioneered liver transplants 25 years ago are now setting their sights on performing Australia's first stomach transplant. Professor Bob Jones, who has performed hundreds of operations, says he still believes they are a miracle. Renee Cowton was a scared ten-year-old when she became the first child liver transplant recipient in Australia. "I knew it was huge and I knew that death could happen if it didn't work," she said. Surgeon, Professor Jones from the Austin Hospital admits 25 years ago the risks were high. "We sought of thought we knew what we were doing, and we were very lucky we got away with it," Jones said. "We do it a lot better now." The operation has since been refined and thousands of lives have been saved. Three years ago Professor Jones performed the first intestinal transplant, now he is preparing for what will be the country's first stomach transplant Twenty-three-...
Read more