Blessings in the face of adversity

Portland Tribune | Cliff Newell
by: REVIEW, TIDINGS PHOTO: CLIFF NEWELL - After receiving her kidney transplant from her brother, Vicky Kelly says she can appreciate the simple joys of life. Such as the lovely garden of her Lake Oswego home.

In Vicky Kelly’s family, love runs deep. Because of this love, the Lake Oswego woman can go on living a life that is rich and dear although she has faced many years of serious illness.

In September, Kelly received a kidney from her brother. Thirteen years ago, she received one from her father. In the face of extraordinary challenges, she has much to be grateful for.

“I’ve grown so much and learned so much,” Kelly said. “I’ve learned not to be so hard on myself and be so judgmental of myself. I take joy in the simple things of life, and I’ve reached a point of acceptance with everything that has happened to me. I’m so grateful for the gift of life.”

On Oct. 18, Kelly celebrated her one-month anniversary with a new kidney. Her future, which once looked so short, now seems much more promising.

“Now, with this new kidney, I have an opportunity for a second chance on life,” Kelly said. “I’m only 51 years old and with a new, good, strong kidney I think I can live 51 more years.”

She has her brother, Gary Petersen, 55, of Arizona to thank.

“Bless his heart, he did it,” Kelly said. “But it wasn’t easy for him. Gary has his own life and challenges. We have always had a very close relationship.” 
Read more

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heart transplant recipient celebrates graduation with donor’s mom

Image
A.J. Reyes, right, talks with Mary Knauer prior to a graduation ceremony for Samuel Merritt University nursing program students in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, May 26, 2017. Knauer's son was killed in a motorcycle crash in 2010 and Reyes received his heart in an organ transplant. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group) At 25, AJ Reyes was suffering from congestive heart failure and running out of time. Unless the Vallejo resident got another organ to replace his damaged one, his doctors told him he would be dead within five years. Reyes went on the California Transplant Donor Network waiting list and in November of 2010, he got the call that he had been praying for. A strong, healthy heart had become available. But his joy was clouded by the knowledge that the news meant another family’s nightmare. Justin Olivera, a 40-year-old man from Willows, a small rural town in Northern California, had just been killed in a motorcycle accident. Olivera was an organ donor, and his heart...
Read more

The Kidney Crisis

Image
Hour Detroit Magazine | By Monica Mercer // Photographs by Josh Scott Myths about organ donation and transplantation are still contaminating the real issues behind a silent health problem Dr. Alan Koffron can conjure scene after scene from the medical TV genre where human kidneys have been integral to the plot: residents dropping them on the floor, crooked doctors profiting from organ trafficking, the wrong kidney placed in the wrong body. Kidney transplantation â€" the most commonly performed of all transplant procedures in the world â€" ranks high on the medical dramatics scale, Koffran says, but he’s not sure why. An organ transplantation surgeon with Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Koffron has performed thousands of kidney transplants. He and the other medical professionals involved in the process across the country know how heavily regulated it is in the United States, with checks and balances so strong that rarely does a kidney transplant involve any- thing remotely a...
Read more

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