Cross-country journey meant to raise organ-donation awareness ends at Atlantic City shoreline

Press of Atlantic City | Sarah Watson
Photo: Sarah Watson.  Chris Praetzel takes a break on Route 40 before entering Atlantic City.

The final steps of a five-month, 3,000-mile journey for a Mullica Hill man came Monday morning with the last few miles of a trans-continental run to raise awareness for organ donation.

Chris Praetzel has been running several dozen miles a day since May, from Santa Monica, Calif., to Atlantic City. He completed his journey Monday with a walk into the 70-degree surf.

Praetzel said he had contemplated the run to honor his brother Brian, who received a kidney transplant as a 3-year-old in 1996, for more than two years. He said no one took the idea seriously until he purchased a plane ticket in January.

“I figured once I did that, there’s no going back,” he said as he stood Monday on the side of Route 40 near the Atlantic City border with several police officers, before completing the final few miles of his journey.

The run was designed to raise awareness for the Gift of Life Donor Program, a nonprofit organ and tissue transplant network that serves Delaware, Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. More than 6,500 people are currently awaiting life-saving organ transplants across the region, according to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.

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

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

Playing With Heart: High school football star battles heart disease

Image
WVU FOX 8, New Orleans | Nancy Parker Photo: Kaylon Marshall (center) with teammates in Shreveport New Orleans, La. -At 5-feet-10, 285 pounds, Kaylon Marshall dominated the football field. But life threw the teen a pass he never imagined. His heart was in the game of football, but that same heart failed him. During the 2011 season, his hits brought more respect to Shreveport's Calvary Baptist Cavaliers. "They called him 'the Beast.' He was the target of all the opposing teams," said his mother Pamela Marshall. But even "the Beast" was not invincible. "I think I remember the last game. I didn't feel good at all and I don't even think my mama wanted me to play because I couldn't breathe at all," Kaylon said. He said it took him a while to get up when he made a tackle because he was so winded. A doctor confirmed a diagnosis that no amount of training could prepare Kaylon for. "He said I had cardiomyopathy and they had to give me f...
Read more