Hello, and welcome to the gifted life podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. I'm Joey Houdreaux. I'm Sally Chintry. And today we're continuing a conversation that we started in the last episode of 101.
If you hadn't checked it out, please do. But we're telling you about the transplant journey of Briggs, Elisor, pint-sized. And on the last episode, we talked a lot about the complexities, his medical complexities, and challenges that he went through. It's time we'll focus a little bit more about his story and then the heroes that it made it all take place.
And today we're going to talk about people love hearing their own name. What's that, Sal? Joey. Joey.
You're right. Rick, Joanna, all you people listening right now, which we can say all your days, but that and more are coming up on this episode of the gifted life guys. Our hope is that you take what you hear here and spread the word. Yeah, guys, you know where to find us.
You can read and subscribe to us. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Google Play, and now even on Spotify, Sally. Oh, you took that away from me, Joey. Spotify.
New. New in the new year. So please help us spread the word. All social media guys, we know that you guys are active on social media, Facebook, the gifted life podcast.
Follow us there, Twitter, Instagram, at giftedlifepod. So we want you involved. You help us tell these stories. You help us spur those healthy conversations about organ tissue and I donation.
You are the key. So join with us guys. We have lots to get to on this episode of the gifted life. You guys ready to go ready?
Yep. Let's do it. All right, guys, the gifted life podcast. We appreciate you listening.
We are continuing our conversation from last episode, episode 101. So if you haven't checked that out, please do. We're continuing to talk about the transplant journey of Briggs, Ellis, a pint-sized, cutie, petootie, three-time, liver recipient from Louisiana, who's now four years old. His mom, Brittany, joins us in the studio here.
He missed Brittany. Hello. You're smiling, right? I am.
Are you choked up to talk to you right now? No, I'm actually really excited to talk to you. Yeah, so Briggs is four. He is.
Riding. Yes. Talk about some of his milestones. He decided birthday a few days ago.
He is going to school. He is jumping around like a bean. He is laughing, talking, doing everything that we thought that he would do. He's not doing it.
Yeah. Give his brother a big time. Oh, yes. He keeps his brother in line.
For sure. I love that. He is so sweet. And like I said, in the last episode, I've been following Briggs's story since he was born.
You've been doing a good job on social media of keeping everybody in the loop and you have a huge following. So on Facebook, it's Lessing For Briggs, his journey with Billyary at Tresha. So I remember following those first steps, which we talked about last episode, I'm honored to kind of go on this journey with you. And I remember February of 2017, it's Mardi Gras time, so we're not at work.
My phone goes off and it's Brittany. And she says, Lori, I made contact. And I was like, what? And she goes, we know his second donor.
We do. And we're talking right now. And I'm actually like the adrenaline guys for me. I was like, what?
What can you tell me? Can you share? And then had this long conversation the rest of the afternoon about what that meant. Do you remember that day?
Yes. Very much that feel like for you. It was just kind of like a dream come true because, you know, since everything happened, all we wanted to do was to be able to say thank you. So to be able to get the chance to actually connect with her over the phone and hopefully set up something to where we met in person, which we ultimately did do, was just a dream come true for us because I never thought it was going to be possible to be able to say that.
And so Joey from the clinical perspective, you know, playing that part and then Sally helping with the communication between recipients and donor families. And then this is the result. Well, and I know too, just from different donor families and recipients that I've had the pleasure of working with. So that was the best opportunity in the moment of their life where they could actually say thank you or actually hear about the recipient.
So often for us, you know, we're meeting families in that acute phase of grief. And one of the things that we find out about or asked about most often is will we ever get that chance, you know, and to see this come to fruition for you guys both is just it's so inspiring and amazing. So Brittany, you were telling me and you said his donor's name is Trinity. And then we were like, whoa, because he's three time liver recipient, three Trinity and it's like all coming together.
So you were talking to mom, Olivia, Olivia joins us now by phone. Hi, Miss Olivia. Hi there. I'm the mom of Trinity, one of the lifesavers for Briggs.
So we appreciate you joining us. We want to talk about the Trinity Love Hobblett Foundation. You can find that also on Facebook. But tell us a little bit about Trinity.
Thank you for having me today. And of course, this is always such an emotional conversation, right? So Trinity was born three pounds and that where she got her name Trinity and the middle name Love. Wow.
So we moved to Amelia Island here in Florida, I would say about 14 years ago. And you know, she's just a beautiful girl with full of energy and full of love who just loves everybody. It doesn't matter who they are, if they're good or bad or naughty, gets she always have a smile on her face and she'll always give a hug and saying, I love you. She always have that love in her heart.
And when I started working for the Susan cables and David cables, you know, their daughter passed away from a car accident. And that's how we learned about what everything about organ donation. They started a foundation called Katie cables Foundation and Trinity would always join the Katie ride, which they hold every year in April and as Trinity got older, she always tell all the writers to say, well, you are an organ donors, right? And like, yes, Trinity, we are you better be an organ donor.
And so, you know, Trinity was born with a primordial dwarfism. So she at age 14, she was only about 29 inches tall. And 2009 she was diagnosed with multiple brain aneurysms. So we've always gone through multiple surgery.
During the 30th, she was pronounced the C from a ruptured brain aneurysm. And so she was brain dead. And that's when the family got together and says, you know, this is what she would want us to do. She would want us to donate her organs.
And so we got together with like quests. And so they said, if all the test goes well between the liver and the heart and kidney, you know, they can go ahead and start the program and find a match for those organs. And so one day we went back to the hospital and they said they found a match for the liver and they found a match for the kidney. They had to the kidney because she's so small, they had to infuse to kidneys one.
And then they found a match recipient for the heart. But the thing is they said, we won't be able to find out about the family and we won't be able to write to the family or actually to the likewise and the likewise handles everything from there till a year later. And so I said, okay, so I would reach out to like quests every maybe three months or six months and say, you guys have any news. I said, well, we can't give you any more information till after the year.
So finally, a year passed and part of me saying, okay, I need to write a letter to the live quest. And the life was actually for my understanding is they had to write out a lot of Trinity's name, you know, because I can't give too much information. And so they like was to receive a letter and they mailed it apparently to Brittany and Brittany, correct me if I'm wrong, was there a lot of blackouts from the letter? There was.
Yeah. So one day I was in my office and I received a private message on my Facebook. Social media. Yeah.
And I was sitting and it just popped out. I'm like, and my mouth just opened and I just I started crying. I couldn't stop crying. I called my husband and my husband was like, okay, slow down.
What's going on? Oh my God. I mean, I said, I think we found deliver recipient. I was like, I just received this mass private messages on Facebook.
And so then I called the live quest and life down from like, well, they're not. How did you find that about you? I know. But you just came up.
And so I think I'm right after I got up for my husband and life was I messages Brittany back and we were able to connect on the phone within what probably 10 minutes after she got ready. The mom on a mission for sure. Yes, she is. I mean, she shared with me.
She said, honey, Brittany shared with me that her husband said, I don't think you should be doing that. And you know, when you get Brittany a mission, she's she's a woman that she will never stop until she meet that, you know, mission and it was just incredible. But we are so thankful that she did that, right? Because then this, I don't know how the whole system will, you know, will allow us to be able to meet them in person.
Olivia, I want to interject something as you're talking about this. Different organ recovery agencies have different protocol that they follow. Here we do not, you know, block out any sort of information and kind of leave it open to the donor family and recipient family if they'd like to interact. And we have no stipulation of any timeframe.
But I do. Oh, wow. Yeah. And so, you know, we have a lot of different, you know, people who are in the United States, it is not all the same.
And you do have different recovery agencies that do put stipulations on when and where and how often are the timeframe, you know, this sort of thing. So I just kind of want to let you know that that is not the same across the board for all of us. That's good to know. Yeah.
We had to wait a year before we were able to write. Like, we can write a letter and, you know, within three or six months later, but they will hold it in the file and they won't mail it to the anniversary date. So they do like, you know that though, when you're you're getting ready to write or you just found that out? And so, you know, we just told us that when we decided to, we were speaking with the life quest and informed them that we were going to donate our organs.
Okay. But the life was super excited when, you know, they were super excited when they found that that I was able to, that I was able to connect. So, but yeah, so we, we started talking. I was in my office and of course my staff was looking at me like, are you okay?
Is that right? Do we need to get anything? Because Brittany and I were just literally crying on the phone, you know, it was very emotional. But also exciting.
I couldn't wait to meet them just knowing that Trinity's liver was in Briggs body, right? Just that feeling like that part of it was alive. So I think it's just so emotional. Like, oh my God, it's like, I feel like I can feel Trinity when we met that evening, we did a FaceTime with my husband and Briggs and, you know, the whole family and such a beautiful family and Briggs.
Oh my God. I just, I love that boy to death, you know, and things that like the family was sharing with me, the things that Trinity would always do like she'll stare herself in the mirror. They heard Tom out, you know, the things that now Briggs are doing. I was like, oh my God, Trinity would always do that.
So, so it was really nice. And so Brittany shared with us the story that, you know, at the hospital and if we weren't for, you know, Trinity, she shared that he probably won't be here right now. And I think it's the right, you know, I don't know how to say this as maybe it's, it was the right timing, I guess. It's hard for me to say that because I don't want to say it's the right timing for losing a child, right?
Because it's the most painful thing ever. But for Briggs to be able to receive Trinity's liver that now seeing him, his, his, his laughing, his dancing, his about to start his school and such a loving kid for him to have the opportunity to have a chance to live, you know, it's a good feeling for us that we didn't waste her organs, that we were able to give other children or the people a chance to live. And how wonderful that you all wanted to help. And that was Trinity, you know, and we, my husband and the whole family look at each other, what would we want to do?
That's what Trinity would want us to do. I believe that when she started attending the Katie Ride for life every year, she made that commitment that she would want to help others and donate her organs. And we can tell you, Brittany's a real big advocate for donation in the Louisiana area. And so she goes out and tells her story in Trinity is now ever since that day, that you are a 2017 ever since you guys make contact.
She makes sure to mention and to let them know that had it not been for Trinity Briggs wouldn't be where he is today. So do you, we know hero, you say that all the time, but your thoughts on Trinity. So I think, like you said, she is for sure our hero in every sense of the way. I think she gave Briggs the fighting spirit to keep on and to hold on and to keep fighting until this day, even though, you know, it's not necessarily her liver still in him.
I think there's always a piece of her still with him and he will carry that until the day he passes away himself. And I think that having that fighting spirit and always knowing that, you know, we have another family out there that, you know, we can connect with and bond with is just a blessing to us more than anything. So I think she's she's a perfect little angel. And Olivia, we know in Florida, you guys have the foundation, the Trinity Love, Hobblet Foundation, tell us your goal with that and what your messages and your hopes.
Yeah. So we just had the, you know, we established the foundation in 2016 and, you know, we, it actually started with all the girls from St. Michael Academy, that school that Trinity attended and we'll have lunch every month and every month we'll have a Trinity's moment and it just came up like we should start a foundation. And so it was established in 2016, we had our first gala in 17 and this foundation is to support and fund in neuroscience research for strokes, inurism, in a cerebral vascular condition, but to also, you know, educate nurses and doctors and also spread the awareness about brain and your son.
And so, and we recently had our gala this year and that was, I mean, I'm sorry, last year, we had our second annual gala and that was very special because that's when we had the first opportunity to hug breaks. That was, you know, I was like that on Facebook. Yes. The feelings.
I could not, when we got back to my husband and I were looking at each other. We could not stop crying because when we held him, we felt her, you know, it's just, it was a very emotional feeling like this is very special. She's here with us. She's here with Greg.
She's Briggs Garden Angel, right? And so for also for Brittany and the family to share their story and in front of the whole room, you should see that the ballroom was filled with people. They're all, there were no dry eyes and they love Briggs. So the second gala was super special for us and Brittany, we can't tell you enough.
Thank you so much for, you know, allowing us to have the opportunity to meet you guys and breaks and to, you know, keep Trinity, you know, alive in your heart as well. That really means a lot to us. And I just want to say thank you on behalf of our family and the foundation. And so, and where the third annual gala is going to be this April the 6th at the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island and this is going to be a very special because as you know, everything comes in three switch.
Yes. So, so we're hoping that it continues to grow. And so, and then the weekend after is actually the Katie Keckles Foundation Katie Wright for life. So we are going to have team Trinity and this is for the, you know, to educate everyone about Oregon, white Oregon donation is so important.
And so we're hoping to have a good team this year. Ladies, this is something to be a part of. We always talk about all these people, these different talents coming together, help us make life happen. So Joey from the clinical side, Sally, you work doing her families and the community, we're working, and we're hoping that stories like this are happening everywhere, right?
So what do you guys, Sally and Joe, feel after listening to this unfold? Oh, I think this is fantastic to hear the different thoughts and feelings and everything, the emotion that both of you all have been able to express and share with our listeners. Fantastic. And I'm just so grateful that there's been a shift in our industry.
You know, everyone is a little different with, with correspondence, but the shift in our industry that's got become a lot more progressive in, in helping assist facilitate the communication and meetings. And so we're very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very important. We see it on the donor side so often, but of course, you know, meeting with Brittany and others, understanding the recipient's side as well. So, you know, for us, it's so nice to see the much more loosely applied or different policies that have come our way.
And to be quite honest, a big part of that we see and I believe is because of things like social media, you know, and, you know, if there's so many easy ways to, you know, find someone, obviously, why are we trying to interfere in those, you know, meetings? And, you know, we're family now. But you're not Brittany, we're all family now. But I got to watch you watch, really participate and the look on your, I will never take these images, like these snapshots of these different times that are just so great in my life, right?
And your face, when he jumped in the water and completed it, you never thought you'd see that. Wow, right? That was crazy. But I like social media too for that reason because I do feel like those big moments, like you just said, but also the small ones where, you know, no one is watching but me and just getting to look in the backseat and see his brother holding his hands or things like that or just the first day of school, we're always very cognizant of, you know, like, you know, like, our donor family don't get these memories anymore.
And so for me, it just makes it a lot harder but a lot sweeter because I do get the chance to share those with Olivia where it is maybe a few years ago. I wouldn't get those opportunities too because of social media. So I like to send her little pictures. It's great because she always, I mean, that's one thing I love about Brittany.
She always sends us a lot of photos of Briggs and we always enjoy, you know, seeing Briggs and his brother and just the whole family. And really, you know, makes us feel good knowing that, you know, Trinity is living on even so her liver is no longer in his body but her blood still runs through his bloodstream, right? She's still part of him and she's always going to be, you know, she's always going to be his little garden angel. And I can see Trinity.
We can see Trinity in him and that, you know, that makes us happy knowing that, you know, Trinity is still around and we enjoy every photo she sends us and definitely put tears in her eyes. And, you know, our only one more wish is we would love to meet the family who will receive the baby to hear her heartbeat for, you know, one last time. I think it's one of the gifts that we would love to have but that opportunity we're not having any luck. So we're going to continue to follow the Trinity Love Hoblett Foundation page.
I feel like we get to know more about Trinity and you. I feel the passion, the emotion behind those posts and the excitement when something else is added to the Gala as well. So on Facebook, Trinity Love Hoblett Foundation, you can follow what they're doing there in Florida and then blessings for Briggs also on Facebook, blessing for Briggs, his journey with Billy and Jerry Atresia. You can live those moments and see Briggs stuffing sugar and just now this is what they take in dancing and saying things as well.
So two good pages there for information. Of course, don't make life Louisiana. We try to share those with folks as well. But, Miss Olivia, can't thank you enough.
Miss Brittany, thank you guys for teaming and for sharing your story for helping to make life happen. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. And thank you so much for all of you for doing what you're doing.
And, you know, there's a long wait list out there. So, you know, please keep doing what you're doing and keep educating everybody because we need to save more lives. Yes, I agree. We're team now, Miss Olivia.
Yes. All right, awesome. Well, we appreciate it and we hope that you guys can, you know, share this hot gas. Our goal is to save more lives.
It's just one more tool for all of us. Oh, yes. We look forward to it. And thank you for having me and Brittany.
We love you guys. Love you guys. Boys and give them our big hugs and big kiss and a big love your way. What's the name?
You're on the gift of life. We're about to find out. Joe, are you nervous? I am.
That was got lots to fill us in on. What is in a name, a first name, especially tell me. Well, you know the thing is this. Today, when I gave them the money, they already said their name, I forgot it, and you forget it.
Oh man, they're remembering my name because I have my tag on. Yeah, they can see it. But they don't have a tag on. What am I going to do next?
Well, you know, one of the things that I think most of us are guilty of is difficulty remembering somebody's name. Sometimes I can remember last names. I remember a face of, Oh, what is that first name? I have just reduced myself.
I go on. So sorry. What is your name again, please? It's better than trying to, you know, fake it because, you know, jump back away.
You know, you have the wrong name. You don't have many times. Yeah, many years ago, I read a book by Dale Carnegie. Do you remember him?
Yes, way back in, way back, last century. Okay. And it was talking about how to win friends and influence people. And said one of the things that's really very important is to remember somebody's first name.
And part of that is if you stop and think about it, when you hear your first name called, something about it just sparks something inside of you, go, oh, isn't that, no, somebody remembered me and knows my name, no, we're not talking about mom and dad. We're hoping they do remember your name. Okay. Well, Joey says it's more work.
Oh, there you go. I don't think people say music is my ear. These people say somebody else. Well, you know, you should never underestimate the power of remembering someone's first name.
Because it really is a wonderful sound to our ears. And many times, as you know, it's just hard to keep track of everyone. I don't have enough room in my brain now. I know.
Now, again, this is going back a few years in time, but I still remember Sam Walton, you know, Walmart, that one of the things that he would do is he remembered all of his employees, whether they worked in the warehouse or whether they worked, you know, it was a cashier, management, whatever. He could remember their first names, their family, you know, who always involved in the family. I thought, whoa, very impressive. They loved him.
And that's really one of the reasons now, Walmart became famous. Now, we're talking about back in the day, because nowadays, I don't know how many thousands of employees there may be. I mean, let alone the people here that work with us here at LOPA. Do you remember everybody's first name?
I remember. Yes. Oh, you do. Right.
OK. That's the way to go. You're talking about memory, because when I was used to be news anchor, but there was a certain politician who came in and I was pregnant, but he knew how many months I was. Every time he came back for a visit, he was like, oh, you must be eight months along.
Wow. You know, my name, remember my husband's name. This is the smartest guy. A lot.
See you. Yes. And I think I had something to do with that. Oh, I probably did well, because he remembered.
But you're right. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. And there'll be times I will see people that I had worked with many years ago.
And they go, hey, Sally, great to see you. And it's like, oh, wow. It is. It is.
It is. Yeah. So all that to be said is that even if you're not very good at remembering names, you can't ask, because you don't want to, you know, kind of go, oh, how are you doing? I mean, you know, because if you can't say it clearly and with some self-confidence, and that person goes, well, I must not have been very important when you met me before.
So we try to help stimulate that. I'm important to you and you're important to me, sort of, mindset. So there you go, Laurie. Joey, it's been a pleasure.
Sally, gently appreciate you. Now, it's still early enough in 2019 to where we can put that on our list of things to try to get better at. Well, you know, maybe we don't do resolutions, but we focus on things to improve on. Right, Joey.
Sally. And you know what you can carry around and know? And when you use my notes on my phone, notebook. Come on, I'm talking about Sam Wall.
We're back in time. I love it. First name, important. The gifted life.
That's first name, right? We're going to remember that one, too. All right. Maybe you have a topic that you want Sally to cover, email us, info at thegiftedlife.org.
In every episode of the Gifted Life, we honor a hero, today's hero, Roger Winchester. Roger Winchester was a loving, devoted father and grandfather. He dedicated his life to working hard to provide for his children, knowing that he could provide for his family, brought him pure joy. Roger enjoyed traveling holidays, birthdays, and spending time with his family and friends.
Roger was a graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He retired in 2015. And from that day up until his death, he spent most of his days with his companion, daughter, grandson, and his shitsu puppy Versace. Roger's family is honored to share his gifts to save lives.
And now we pause to say thank you to Roger for the gift of life. Well, in our question and answer segment, today's question, Laurie, is for you. I like that guy. How do I find out about volunteering in my area of the US?
Oh, yes. I love volunteer questions, because I think volunteers are key. That's how we get the information out. That's how we dispel those myths.
You are the key. You help us make life happen. So I guess I'll answer the question now. You can visit AOBO's website.
We've talked about AOBO before here on the podcast, Association of Organ Procurement Organizations. So their website is AOPO.org. There's a tab that says about OPOs. Click on it.
Then click on find your OPO, Organ Procurement Organization. So there's a map where you can click on your region or state, learn more about the organization that services your area. We're just hoping you get involved. And if you need more information, always reach out.
They get to life. We also want you to know your question or your story is very important to us. You can reach out to us and give others some information if you might have it or ask us for some additional information. And you can email us at info at thegiftedlife.org.
Or you can give us a call. What's that number? That number is 5-0-4. 6-4-8-3-4-7-7.
We'd really like to hear from you. What's that number? 5-0-4. 6-4-8-3-4-7-7.
All by memory, Joe. Yeah, that bit. All right, thanks for listening. That's episode 102, guys, of the gifted life, the ending of a two-part series.
And that was pretty powerful. All the moving pieces there. We certainly thank Brittany Eliser and Olivia Hobbit for coming in and sharing Briggs' intranity story with us. And I'm just so excited to see and hear the passion between those two, how they found each other, the uniqueness through social media.
And in how now they have such a close knit bond between those two mothers and families. Oh, absolutely. And think how therapeutic it is for both of them to be able to meet, to be able to share what has happened for each of them, and to have that bond now that you're talking about. And it's interesting to me, after being in family services for many, many years, just to hear how different other OPOs do provide customer service.
It was something to hear from Dr. Seal in the last episode. If you didn't listen to that one, please go back and do that. That's 101 to Brittany with Olivia.
It's just an amazing, transplant journey. And we know there's more to come from Brittany and Olivia as they continue to work together and work with us to help us make life happen. And since Trinity is the hero that we were talking about with these moms, she would go around asking, are you an organ donor? I'm going to pose that question to you.
Are you an organ donor? Were you inspired today? If so, register me.org. Register me.org is where you can go.
To sign up to be an organ, ion tissue donor to give life to leave a legacy. And now we want you to go out and do something that you would normally do to help us make life happen. We know you can do it. You're part of our team.
And we thank you for listening. This is a production of a Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency or LOCA. The gift of life is hosted by Laurie Steele, Joey Buudro, and Sally Dendry, our executive producer is Kirsten Hines. Producer is Shalom Caraway.
And we are recorded, engineered, and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.