Living Donor Chain

Hello and welcome to the Gift of Life podcast where we have conversations about organ, tissue and ideonation. Remember you can always find us at thegiptidlife.org. I'm Maurice Steele. I'm Joey Woodrow.

I'm Sarah Blakemore. And on the podcast today, we'll be meeting two sisters who transform their grief into a chain of events that I've given new life to so many others. And we're going to talk about getting through tough times and what are some good coping mechanisms. You don't want to miss a minute.

Let's get to it. We are so excited here on the gift of life to visit with some incredible sisters, Hannah and Bethany Groski. How are you ladies? Great.

Thanks for having us. We are smiling big. We're going to share your story with our Gift of Life podcast listeners. Joey, you said it before, transforming grief into hope for others.

We were just like, wow, when we heard about what these two did, right? Right. Right. It was amazing to me and we'll get into it in a little bit.

But just you guys' stories, the family bond that you obviously have, the wonderful character that just emanates from your family. But let's talk about you guys have a tie with donation. And so I'd like to if I could go back. So what was the first time that you guys heard anything about organ transplants or donation?

It was 2010. We found out that my dad would need a kidney transplant. And at the time, my brother was like, of course, I'll give up my kidney. And he was, I think at that time, 17 and started the work up.

And then it was shortly after he turned 19 that he donated a kidney to my dad. And so what were you guys thinking? So in this high school career, about to start college, obviously that's your dad. But what were all these emotions that were going on between the family?

I was going to say, it was amazing, but you also have to think this is a cause we didn't really know anything about. And up to that point, our father had been sick a lot of our lives and he'd always been OK. So not to say that we didn't take it as something heavy, but Bethany and I were just still kids. We were in high school at the time and our brother was in college and he swooped in and fixed everything.

It's kind of like, what the big brother does. And it never really crossed our mind that like a, how serious this is and, you know, how fortunate we were that they both came out of that situation, you know, amazing and healthy. But the, what a miracle it was. Because like I said, our dad had been sick before and he was always OK.

So in our minds, I don't think it ever occurred to us that this could go poorly. And what is Big Bro's name? Josh. Josh.

Josh. Is it like, wow, like I don't know if at that time, if I would have been able to make that decision at that age, you know, it seems like so long, young, you're learning things like that's kind of cool. Like just a good human. And so if I can paint a picture just for the audience, so your dad got really sick and needed a kidney transplant and you talked about, you know, big bro swooping in and saving the day.

So in general, we've talked about this in the past many of our podcasts, centered upon donation after someone has passed. And oftentimes in these situations, the person has to wait at least three or four or five years, sometimes I've seen, you know, seven years to 10 years to be able to get that life saving organ, especially if it's a kidney, because as most people know that that's the one organ that most people, it's the biggest, largest part of our the weightless. So so then Big Bro comes in and decides that I'm going to I'm going to do something heroic. And I'm going to swoop in, like you said, and save dad's life with donating his own kidney.

So so what an amazing thing for such a young man at that time. So tell us about life. So Josh, and tell us dad's name. Mark.

Josh donates to Mark transplant successful. So tell us about life after that after that gift, after he had new life, breathed in him. It was amazing. He went into his surgery with a creatinine of 17, who woke up with a creatinine of one.

Oh, wow. He went home 48 hours after surgery. He said he wanted to walk from the recovery room to his actual room, but they went to let him. He was it was night and day.

How good he looked and it was incredible with a 17 creatinine for those, you know, who aren't familiar with those numbers. Generally speaking, you can't, your blood has so much nitrile. You're just a surgeon in it that that your brain can't even function at that, you know, phase and then to go from that to normal. Just just with that one kidney, you know, Josh's life saving gift that he gave.

So that is amazing. So what? So tell me a little bit. So how Josh come out of it.

Josh was incredible as always, but this is his first surgery. You know, he hadn't even had his wisdom teeth out or anything. So we kind of joked that he was a little bit of a baby about it. And then, but that's what little sisters are for to TZO.

So basically Josh did this over his spring break of his freshman year of college. And he flew back to school about like seven to 10 days later. And by that point, he was feeling good and the only real like restriction is on lifting, but you look a little bloated, but pretty normal. But, you know, Josh has always been an avid runner and very physically fit.

So I think it was like within no time that he was good as new. And that was, you know, March of 2011. And then in the summer of 2012, he and my dad competed in the transplant games and participated in that. So Josh has always been very active.

And as you can imagine, at his age, there's not a lot of living donors. So he didn't have much competition. I love it. The sister brother relationship.

And then I'm sitting here wondering if somebody asked my siblings about me, would they be kind? So love you guys here in in Bethany. So so that was in March of 2011, 2012 transplant games, life's going as normal. Then what happens in 18?

He got sick again. Originally in 2013, he developed a kidney stone and a transplant kidney. And it recovered somewhat but not fully. So in 2015, he was re-listed for transplant.

But at that point, he was like still making urine and, you know, he was feeling fine. And so I told my dad, okay, I want to be worked up to donate my kidney to you. And so I went through that work up in 2016 and then 2016, like right around the same time, he developed an infection in his brain from the anti-rejection medication. And so he had to go through brain surgery, antibiotics, and all that stuff, just like down spiral to his kidney failure.

Yeah, he was losing weight. He was in the five. He was just like, good not what's good. And so they told him like, yeah, you need to be kind of recovered from the brain surgery.

So they wanted to go to the way of the year. And then they were like, you know, your liver's not doing good. You need to gain weight, skin cancers back. No, it was just one thing after another.

And ultimately, surgery's decision was just like, you are too sick to transplant. You're not going to survive a surgery. And in 2018, we were trying to get him healthy enough for a transplant, doing everything they wanted him to do. He was back on dialysis, getting TPM through vein to feed them.

And he just, he was just so sick. And then in September 2018, he ended up in intensive care unit. At Northwestern and they were like, you know what, he's not going to leave the hospital and it's on hospice and transplant was like, you're not a good surgical candidate. I can't say if you ever will be.

And so my dad did not want a kidney transplant or he didn't want to do undergo dialysis and TPM if he wasn't going to get a transplant. And so we decided to take him home on hospice and he died four days later. Now, how old are you guys when when this is happening? I was 25.

I was 23. Yeah. And so you tell dad you'd like to donate. Tell us your mind to obviously love him and we're sorry for your loss, but we love that you're using this story to honor his legacy and to give hope and save lives.

Walk us through your, your thinking at the time. So you want to donate that's still pretty young to make that decision. So I thought Josh do it. I was 17 when Josh donated and I remember seeing that and seeing how easily both people recovered, I'm like, I want to do that someday.

And you know, when you're kind of in our family situation, you know, you kind of learn to save your kidney and case down when you're second. And you know, so I would like going through nursing school, graduating nursing school, got a job and, you know, my dad was re-listed for a kidney and I was like, Hey, dad, can I give it to you? And of course no father wants his daughter to go through surgery. And so he was like, I had a 10.

And I remember the day I told him I was a previous donor, he started crying. But I didn't have to think twice about it. I thought Josh go through it. I had had, you know, a couple of minor surgeries on my couch about how I had surgery.

I knew I could handle pain and you had to handle anesthesia. And I was like, sure, I won't do it. Don't even ask me twice. Wow.

So walk us through. So you just kind of walked up in the hospital and said, Hey, I got one and I want to do this or what's that process like? So our father passed in September of 2018. And I had also been tested as a potential donor at the time, made more sense for Bethany to donate to our father.

If it ever could work out, she was the same blood type, et cetera, et cetera. I'm the baby of a family. So I was just like, my turn here. Same and a same.

Okay. So shortly after he passed, I mean, obviously you have all the streets and you're wondering what you're going to do with it. And I think Bethany and I both agreed that we just really, you try to stay busy and you try to stay busy. But one thing I always said to Josh, you know, I would donate my kenina heartbeat, but you're saving it for dad.

So when I knew he didn't need it, I knew I didn't need two kenmies. So I kind of called up a hospital and said, Hey, I had these tests done. I had started to get worked up as a kidney donor, like what test do I need to redo? And Bethany was doing the same thing.

And being sisters, you know, we kind of do everything together. And we thought, how fun would it be to do this together? So as we're going through testing and getting approved, and I mean, it does take a while. We kind of said, and our one request, like if we can make one, we don't care when a kidney goes to whoever needs it the most, but could we do this together?

So probably in, you know, late February of 2019, I get a call saying we have a match for you. How do you feel about March 14th, which is, you know, like two weeks away at the time and world kidney day. So I'm like, Oh, that sounds great. And all the while wondering, Oh, what about Bethany?

What about Bethany? And she gets a call the day later saying, how do you feel about March 15th? Yeah, back to back day. So and did you guys know about the kidney pair donation before then?

Or were you just planning to donate to someone that was there at Northwestern? We told Northwestern, Hey, just give it to whoever needs it. Our big thing was we didn't want somebody else to go through what we went to. Whoever needed the most, I trusted our coordinators that they would pick the right people to be involved in this and you are dad.

And so I'm like, if there's a potential for a chain, great, but I'm not asking you to make a chain. And, you know, we find out a couple of months later that more and more people are getting into use from us. So what ends up happening is that so, uh, and Hannah, I believe you said you were the first in the, in the chain, so to speak. So, so then that starts kind of a domino effect of one person donating to another person and then that person's loved one or the, you know, uh, that person, whoever would have been a living donor for that person, then don't need a different person.

And it just keeps the domino effect keeps falling one after the other after the other. So that so many people get donations instead of zero, which would have happened because that one person didn't have a perfect match, you know? So it's amazing that you guys were the dominoes that really started everything falling so that how many people ended up getting donations because of this? Five.

People have gotten transplants so far, but the chains have not closed. So they're still in the process of finding matches and pairs. Right. So when we met our recipients back in July, that's like kind of all we know.

So we're hoping maybe here in March will be the one year anniversary and we can maybe get an update and hopefully they're still going and growing. But yeah, what was so great was everyone who was involved had someone who wanted to donate to them. So assuming that the case, it can keep going for a long, long time. So we watched video.

Obviously it's made big news. This is such a great story. We saw you hugging next of these people in this chain reaction. Had you met them before?

Was that first time me and then explained to me what you're thinking like we started this or my dad or honoring our dad and then look what happened. Like that's amazing. So we had never met in the hospital when we donated. We were kind of playing like matchmaker with people walking the hall.

So I actually did run into and while walking the halls a woman named Kate and she was like, I think you and she had just donated as well. And she goes, I think you donated to my friend Julie. So we met briefly and it turned out that's what it was. But the amazing thing was like Julie looked so good then in July when I like actually met her, and she was recovered.

It was like, did I meet any of these people in the hospital? None of them looked familiar because everyone looked so good. So I don't really feel like we met in March because we were both drugged up and went on. We definitely met in July and we had a didn't know the extent of these chains and didn't know how many people were involved.

And to see everyone's a doing so well and be caring on the chains, it just meant so much to be able to prolong a life and be to see that these are good people. And people you want to stay in contact with and people who respect and honor your story and where you came from and our decision to donate. So hearing all stories, obviously very powerful. And to lose your father because he was too ill to receive a donation, you know, a lot of people could take that as they could get very angry or resentful to the system.

I'd like y'all to share why that wasn't the case for y'all while y'all took this moment and turned it into true altruism and while you started to think of others. But you can answer if that's not who our dad was and that's not how our wonderful parents raised us. So as I said earlier, our dad was sick a lot of our childhood. And when someone asked him how he was, he had every reason to complain and tell them how terrible he felt and he always said, I'm good and then praised it.

How are you? He wants to genuinely help others and learn and be so considerate. So it is easy to be mad and think organ donation should have helped us. It could have helped us, given us more time from the outlook that Josh's kidney lasted about eight years.

Maybe Bethany could have given my dad another eight years. I could have given him a kidney, give him another eight years. And then he lived to see us get married and have very kids. It's easy to have that mindset.

But going back to who our dad was and how positive and caring and giving he was and the example he sat for us, that's just now who he was and that's not how our parents raised us. So really just trying to honor his character and his spirit and his giving spirit and see what we can do from there. It was really a no-brainer. If I knew my dad didn't mean my kidney, there was no reason I needed to hold on to it.

I mean, oh my gosh, Dr. Jaws are on the floor. That's amazing. It really is amazing and it shouldn't be taken lightly.

That's for you. You say that's an easy thing and it's a no-brainer, but it's truly incredible what y'all have done. Thank you so much. So let's talk about you guys' recovery.

We have folks who listened to the podcast. One event said I'm thinking about this donating a kidney to a stranger. I just wanted to do it. I was listening to the podcast.

So we have someone like that that's listening. What is your recovery and what advice would you give to someone who's maybe thinking about taking that step? We were in the hospital for only one night and I honestly never had my advent cut up before, but no idea what I was going to expect. And I was shocked in how little pain I was.

I'm sure I was high off of a bunch of drugs. I was shocked. I gave you the good stuff. And I was still able to take care of myself.

I could get up, use the bathroom, take a shower. I didn't need help getting dressed. It's nice to have mom, like get you a cup of water so you don't have to get up. Yes.

But we had our post-op appointment on day five for me day six for Hannah. And I think by day 10, I'm not taking math and math anymore. I could walk more than a mile without being in pain. I have my energy bag.

I feel fine. I'm not storing more. I was shocked that you heal from a surgery like this. Because I was like four inches big and I was sore for like seven to 10 days.

Like I got out before for like three to four weeks. It's truly amazing. Even just in the eight years since our brother Josh donated, like he was stitched up and we were glued together. You know, technology has changed.

And he did recover quickly. I felt like Bethany and I recovered quickly. I was back at work a week later. Granted, I sit at a desk.

So nothing too strenuous there. And yes, I did long for like an afternoon nap, but it wasn't like I couldn't keep my eyes open. I mean, I do that now. So I still long for those afternoon naps.

But what are you going to do? But it really is incredible how your body knows and your one kidney grows and echoing off of me. It's absolutely wonderful to have them take care of you and they want to be that someone wants to take care of you. That really helps.

But at the same time, your body bounces back so fast. And I feel like it was probably easy to do it while we were done, opposed to like later. Because like I said, I always wanted to donate my kidney. I thought it would be years and years from now, like after my father passed.

But as an old man, you know, so I thought I'd be like four year 50 donating a kidney. And that's probably a different story. But I feel very fortunate that we bounced back so quickly. And you know, by the end of the six weeks, they say, you know, where you're not supposed to live more than a milk jug.

I was, you know, ready to work out and all that good stuff. And I couldn't wait to get back to an active lifestyle. My goodness. I love how you guys got people talking about donation, who would normally talk about donation through traditional media covering this, social media, the comments were so positive and it was just amazing.

So not only did you help these people that you got to hug their necks, people, worlds away from you guys, which is amazing. So I know that you've done interviews and those kinds of things. And we try to focus on education. So is there something that came up like a craziest comment or question or something that somebody mentioned that you thought, Oh, we're going to use our story to help educate in that in that direction?

Well, that's interesting to say that. And I'll definitely answer if you might have a different take. But when this was starting to get out in the media, I think people read headlines a lot and not the whole story. No.

So it was hard for me to read some of the comments because these were clearly people that didn't read the story saying, like, why would those girls donate their kidney if their dad needed a kidney? They probably will too one day. And how do you not think that the hospital A, wouldn't check for that and B, we wouldn't know that? So I actually didn't read a lot of comments just because of the ignorance.

But yeah, people just read the headlines and assumed one day we were going to need the kidney and the hospital wouldn't think to check for that. Yeah, that's a good point though. Glad you brought that up. Another thing we encountered was the risk of preeclampsia.

So the doctors really asked us, they're like, you risk preeclampsia by donating your kidney. And they were like, are you sure you want to do it now? Like you can wait half kids come back and 15 waiters and your kidney will still be needed. And I was like, no, I'm not going to like, they're not going to have your pregnant for the first year.

Like, I promise you, I won't get pregnant with them for a year. Like, I am healthy now. I'm probably the healthiest I am ever going to be. I can financially support myself like that.

And so we were just like, and I a girl I worked with donated her kidney to her mom at like probably around the same age. And she has had kids since then. And people are like, don't let the preeclampsia scare you. You're going to obviously, when you get pregnant, you're going to have an OB doctor who is going to monitor you and you get preeclampsia.

And so I didn't feel like that was a big, I mean, it was a risk, but I didn't feel like I was maybe not unreasonable choice and like doing this knowing I was going to, you know, have like health complications on the road. Determined daughters. I love it. I love it.

Positively landing on your feet. And now it's almost a year out since y'all's donation. What's your relationship with your recipients? So we, my recipient was like in the Chicago suburb.

So whenever she's down for appointments, she will text me and go like, come visit me at work if I'm working or like, I'll have lunch with her and her husband. She has a three year old as well. She lives in the town next to where my mom lives over Christmas. And I met up with her and her son and had lunch.

We've gotten pretty close. It's really, it's funny. Like you just have this weird connection with them now. And it's like, I think you like can explain to them that they have your kidney, but it's weird how easy it is to interact with the recipient.

And then my recipient, Julie, actually lives in St. George, Utah. And she used to live in the Chicago area. So she was on a transplant list here and one out there and maybe even another one.

She's been waiting for quite a while. So when she's in town for like her six months, check up in her kids and grandkids to live here. I do get to see her, which is lovely and will text around the holidays and just because now we're connected. And it's really fun to have this really random reason to be friends with these complete strangers.

And then I would say like of the group, it's nice of the like donors and recipients. There was another donor who was in her twenties, her name's Michelle, so shout out to Michelle. But it is, you know, nice that there's another young donor who was doing well and probably a little bit easier to have a friendship and connection with someone who is younger in our age and going through the donation process just like we did. And she wanted to donate so her dad could get a kidney, which he did.

We love this story. And we're so honored that we got to know Mark, your dad, through what you guys did. Thank you. He raised some great kids and some good humans in this world, including Josh.

Hey, Josh, we didn't forget about you. Handsome guy who watched your interviews, very well spoken as well. And we want to continue to follow your story. We hope that you come back on the podcast as we get further removed from the actual transplant.

And then all that has happened because you guys gave these milestones that these families are now able to have because you guys stepped forward. Hannah, Bethany, if you're ever in Louisiana, hey, check us out. What? Girls around the corner.

There we go. But we love it. Thank you guys. Thanks for sharing your story.

Thank you so much for having us. We'll definitely keep you updated on if we meet other recipients or be the chain grow. We'll keep you all posted. Oh, we'd love that.

Thank you, ladies. Of course. Thanks so much. At this point in the podcast, we're taking a moment for mental health.

Yeah, today Sarah's going to help us get through tough times. What you got for today, Sarah? All right. So today we're going to be talking about some coping mechanisms for those tough times.

Now, tough times can be a lot of things. It could be just recently lost. A loved one, you lost your job, you're having some family issues, financial issues, whatever it is that's tough. We're going to go through some really quick, very helpful coping mechanisms.

Great. So the first one we're talking about is faith and spirituality. So if that's already part of your life, it's really good to turn back to those foundational things that make up who you are, like your spirituality or faith. And I know it's when talking to people, it is very helpful.

Right. Also, go and find your community and your connection. We all need support and we all need that from other people. So if you're going through a tough time, find the supportive people in your community and connect with them.

Does that include my drinking buddies or? Absolutely. I mean, that's a safe space for you. Like if you need to go have a few friends, that's connection.

Human connection gets us through tough times. I like that we have a veteran who is in our community and like retired, retired, retired, where has nothing to do. So then he reached out and says, I need something to do. I need a purpose.

Can I start volunteering? I'm like, man, I love to hear that. Yes. But that's his way of conan action that connects with other people.

And I'm sure it just makes his days easier and better. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing, if you're creative or if you're into the arts, go and explore that.

Take classes, find other people who are interested in the same things and get that creative air going. Because that energy is really helpful to people through tough times. And also, this one's going to be kind of difficult, but look for change. Do something different.

Find something to change up your daily routine or do something that's different for you that enables you to adapt to the troublesome time. I like the challenge, but it's so nice. It doesn't have to be everyday. It can be a challenge just within the changes.

That's right. And I know it changes very hard for a lot of people, but even if you do something once a month, that's just different from what you normally do and it challenges you and it brings different energy and lightness into your routine and your mental health. And a focus that gives you a different focus. Even if, like you said, if it's once a week, once a month, you can look forward to that new challenge that you've got that you hadn't had before.

Right. It's a distraction to something new that distracts you from what's troubling you. Now, I mentioned the once a week or once a month thing. So how would you know if it changes too much or is there such thing as too much change in this situation?

Yes. And that can actually be, there is too much too big, too fast. So more so instead of thinking of big changes like selling your house or getting a new job, I'm talking about do something that's different. Take a pottery class, go to a poetry reading, do something that's different that gets you out of your everyday routine because it brings you a new purpose, new focus.

It brings something new to your life that adds value. And the last one's probably the most important, which is self care and self compassion. So really have compassion for yourself and know that it's okay to take care of yourself first because you can only take care of others when you yourself are taking care of. I like that one.

And this new year is like, okay, every night, 10 minutes about when I read a book or do something mindless. I know, Joey, you'll make a joke there, but there's something to get away from mom work and all that's just for me. I would say challenge change it from mindless to mindful because what you call mindless is actually mindful. So, sorry.

Sorry. And once you take care of yourself, you can be that better. Mom, you can get through those tough times because you are prepared and you're equipped and you feel good about yourself too. I like it.

Okay. Took notes. Hope you did too. Maybe you have a topic you'd like Sarah to cover info at the giftedlife.org.

We'd love to hear from you. In every episode of the gifted life podcast, we honor a hero. Today's hero is Scott Fonnier. And we learn about Scott from his family.

In February, 91, my 26-month-old son Scott pulled a color television over on to him. Within 24 hours, we were told by a neurologist that Scott was brain dead and some very difficult decisions would have to be made in those next few days. As I sat by his side while family members came to say their final goodbyes, I couldn't help but think to myself just how sweet the little boy he was and what a good-hearted boy he was. I decided to discuss organ donation with my husband.

In 1991, donor recipient information was closed. There was a chance encounter at Ochner in New Orleans, a neighbor put the pieces together and realized who received Scott's liver, a little girl named Bridget who was waiting on a second transplant. Letters were written between families. Bridget's mother contacted us and decided it was time we meet her sweet daughter.

After that, we have remained very close and see each other as much as possible. The same year Scott's passing, I had a daughter named Danielle. Bridget served in our daughter Danielle's wedding in 2012. Our lives have been intertwined ever since.

We may never really know why this accident happened, but he is our hero. For more on Scott's story, and to see his sweet face, check out our hero stories on lopa.org. And now we pause and say thank you to Scott for the gift of life. In our question and answer segment today, how does a kidney chain work?

Do the donors coordinate the chain or is it coordinated on the transplant center level? Good question today. Thanks for sending that in. Joey?

So Lori, oftentimes with a kidney-paired donation, are these chains. It's initiated from someone who intended on donating to someone they know. And what happens oftentimes is that they aren't a good match, but they really want to donate. And of course their loved one or their friend or whoever it is still needs a kidney.

So what they started doing and it's becoming more and more familiar and often is that they then start pairing up with others and continue links in the chain through other working collaboratively with other transplant centers instead of just looking within. So you see these dominoes, as I mentioned before, from whether it's Louisiana and then to Chicago or to Arkansas. And they continue pairing up, pairing up until finally there's a closure of this chain. So it's essentially usually initiated like that through the transplant center and then the transplant center in is where you'll see the chains become linked.

Through UNOS, United Network of Organ Sharing, but it's a collaboration of a few of these entities. It's not the responsibility of the donor himself or herself to coordinate this chain. Obviously they don't have any part in that. It's the responsibility of the transplant center working with UNOS and through UNOS with other transplant centers.

So that's kind of how the kidney-paired donation works. Alright, and so I'm just curious. I have one more question for you. So the Goralcy Sisters that we interviewed on this podcast, what if one of those sisters needed a kidney?

Like is there a process for that? Yes, so great question. Just a few years ago, I can't remember the exact year, but probably two or three years ago, it was implemented in OPTN, our Organ Transplant Procurement Network. You know, basically what I usually refer to them as UNOS as the contractor for PTN.

They put it into a place that if someone was a donor, whether it was in the kidney-paired donation or they were living donor for someone they knew, if they should then later on become in need of a kidney, they automatically move to the top of the list. So they're the first ones to get one that's a match. Yeah, that's good. If you want more information on this, go ahead and listen to episode 87 of the Gifted Life podcast where we dig into this as well.

And if you have questions you want answered on the podcast, email us at info at thegiftedlife.org or you can call us. And that'll do it for episode 127 of the Gifted Life. Wow, right? Yeah, wow.

I mean, what a special group of people. That family is amazing. And inspiration. Three siblings that have all donated.

And then you've got Hannah and Bethany who of course came on our show and talked about their donation process and the fact that they donate to people that they've never met. Yeah, wow. What a journey and we appreciate them sharing their story. We hope to keep in touch with them.

And we want to thank all of you for listening. Remember, you can register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor anytime. Register me.org, hopefully we inspired you as well. And remember, the best place to find us is our website, thegiftedlife.org.

Listen there or anywhere you listen to your podcast, whether it's Apple, Google, or Spotify. If you do listen on Apple podcasts, please leave us a five star rating and subscribe because it really helps others find us. Or if you're on social media, like our page on Facebook, the Gifted Life podcast and follow us on both Twitter and Instagram at Gifted Life pod. You can also give us a ring 5046483477.

Share your story with us. We may use your audio on this podcast. Our goal is to make life happen. We are a team.

And we hope that you go out today and do something you wouldn't normally do to help us make life happen. We hope you have a good one. This is a production of LOPA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buudro, and Sarah Blakemore, our executive producer is Kirsten Heis, producer Ishelon Caraway.

Intern is Rebecca Rannam, and we are recorded, Engineer and Mixed in our Covington, Louisiana Studio by Troy Perez.