Organ recipient speaks about benefits of donations

The State News | Caitlin Leppert
Donor family member Lon Coleman speaks during the Real Heroes event on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, while a picture of his brother Chase is shown in the background. Coleman’s brother’s heart and other organs were donated after his death. Julia Nagy/The State News

Although Lon Coleman lost his brother to a car accident years ago, his brother’s heart beats on â€" in the body of another.

When Coleman’s family agreed to donate the brother’s 20-year-old organs, he expected the gesture would be saving lives; what he didn’t see coming was the tight-knit relationship that would develop with the recipient, then 52-year-old Terry Gould.

“It’s almost beyond friendship,” Coleman said. “I could say we’re all family.”

Coleman and Gould have expanded their unique experience to speaking around the country about the benefits of organ donations. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the two spoke at MSU. The pair came to MSU for the University Activities Board, or UAB, event, Real Heroes: No Capes, No Masks, No Distraction 19:00:00s, a segment of the UAB Speaker Series.

Marketing senior and UAB Director of Leadership and Education Shannon McGreal-Miller said she organized the event to shed light on the not-so-glamorous topic of organ donations and the stigmas surrounding it. “There’s a lack of discussion,” McGreal-Miller said. “Sometimes, it might seem barbaric or taboo.”

In many countries, she said it is assumed people will donate organs unless voiced otherwise, whereas in America, it is the opposite.

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