Tissue Donation: The Burning Shield

Hello and welcome to the gifted life podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. I'm Lori Steele. I'm Joey Boudreau. I'm Stanley Chintre.

And thank you. You right there listening. We certainly appreciate you coming up on the podcast today. A true inspiration.

Inspiration indeed. We'll talk to a police officer who was burned in a line of duty and had tissue donations save his life. That's a great story. Wow.

And we're going to also talk about sibling grief. Right. More coming up on this episode guys. Our ask is that you share this podcast.

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Our guests awaits. So let's go. You're on the gifted life. We are so pleased that Jason Shekterly is joining us now.

You may have heard about him, but I have to tell you an inspiration. Why we do what we do, Jason, you're it, man. How are you? I'm doing wonderful.

Thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it. Well, we are sitting here and when we say Jason, we just are brought back to when you spoke to our LOPA group about your story. And we all remember vividly things we wanted to share with our audience.

But I have to tell you, we were just at a college campus and we were trying to teach them about working tissue eye donation. And one of the guys on our tissue team said, you want to know why I do what I do, like it fired up. You want to know why? Let's go to theburningshield.com.

And this guy right here is why we do what we do. And I thought, man, that was so cool. And then you're here on the podcast today. So I love to hear that because I love, I want people to spread my story around and give a face and a name to exactly that.

Why do you do what you do and why do people need to be concerned about their understanding of the blind? So that's awesome. That makes my day. Thank you.

Yeah. Well, thank you. And then I love how you say the miracle, the journey that you're on, you wouldn't change a thing and we want to walk people through it. So take us back to 2001 Phoenix or a first responder and tell us about your day.

You're going about it. Fightin' crime, like normal. Yes, it was March 26th of 2001. I had been a Phoenix police officer for a little over 14 months and I was at work.

I've been at work for about eight hours. It wasn't too far from the end of my shift and I was involved in a very bad car accident. On my way to an emergency call, I was struck from behind by an out of control taxi cab. I was having an effortic seizure and doing an excess of 100 miles an hour when he slammed it to the rear by patrol car and it caused my car to burst into flames.

And I forced to have to burn a vehicle back down conscious. I suffered some very sensitive burn injuries but my first several miracles was there was a fire truck in the intersection at the time that basically witnessed a crash and were able to go to work for me. And I was also less than three miles away from one of the best burn centers in the United States, at the medical county medical center. So there were those necessary pieces of the puzzle to get me any hope of surviving.

I had suffered burns through 43% of my body. My next base where the worst way they were fourth degree burns and fourth degree is that the last layer of muscle into the column I think everything is burned and taken away has to be removed. Again, you're struck by a car going in excess of 100 miles an hour and your car burst into flames. There's a fire truck right nearby.

So there must have been some of your colleagues, police officers that must have arrived on the scene at some point. There were actually very quickly two good friends of mine. They were only about a half mile away in the chaos of something like that. You hear things.

They heard the impact they saw the fire. They got there in about 30 seconds and were able to hell. They had no idea what they were even coming up on. And then to see if the police car and I've obviously spoken to them many, many times over the years or here friends of mine, but for them to be thrust into that emotional situation possibly one of their friends dying.

And I don't care what uniform you were in, fighter flight, send it over to the real one of them into the car and he'll get my legs peep free. He'll have my seat belt to help firefighters. And he really did take a sincere effort on those six individual first responders to get me out of a car. They did it in 90 seconds.

That's amazing. Which is incredible. And then the thing that I keep going back to, you should have died at the scene from all the medical experts, all the information that you brought to us, you should have died at the scene, but you didn't and you're here and you're helping to inspire hearts and hopefully promote organ tissue and ideonation for those out there who are still on the fence. Like that's amazing to me.

You should have died at the scene, but you didn't. You got to the hospital and then you were in a medically induced coma two and a half months. For two and a half months. Yes medically induced because they knew the pain and surgeries are facing.

But also the doctors were very honest with my family. They did not do survival. Not that first hour that I got there and not even the next several days or weeks. I mean, at any moment when you are burned like that, when you lose all that skin and tissue, the protective layers, the fluids, you're not attracted to survive that.

And I want to go back to something you said just for a minute ago. Thank you. But to continue to work through my own adversity and try to inspire others with what you do every day and what people you're listening, obviously understand. I've been able to accept that there are two very simple things that we need to do to be healthy and happy and successful in this life.

And that's number one is to simply wake up. Number two, just be grateful. And I have so much to be grateful for. And I have constant things that happen to me that will take me back to my tissue donor and that family and make me think, am I honoring them the right way?

I'm so grateful for the life that I get to lead because I was lucky enough to wake up the morning and I'm going to pass that on because any people I can. Jason, have you been able to have any communication with the donor's family or? Unfortunately, I have not and back in, I know who provides most of the tissue for the American Public County Burn Center now. But back in 2001, it was a different organization.

And so many years ago, I'm not, I'll be honest, I haven't actively tried to find. But I think knowing the surgeries that I had, I wouldn't be surprised if I had multiple don'ts. Right. So taking you back to those two and a half months, so the public can understand the severity and the importance.

You know, with your skin, obviously, is your primary barrier for against infections, fighting infections. And of course, there's also the portion of the skin and with a burn that hydration is a huge part, a huge challenge, a hurdle to overcome. And you know, I worked in the ER, of course, seeing you, you know, and of course, I actually was fortunate enough to watch you speak twice and both times I can't say how much you've inspired and touched me personally. But seeing the house of beer, your burns where I've never, I've taken care of, you know, third degree burns and maybe up until fourth, but only for one limb type thing.

And then we would transfer. And for everyone to understand the amount of fluids resuscitation that takes place, it's almost insurmountable when you're talking about this huge, this severe burn in the situation that he was in. And then the challenge of infection, I can't imagine it must have been an ongoing fight of antibiotics. And then of course, you know, the donations and things that took place that helped.

So can you take us some through those critical care times and then your surgeries? Certainly, you're exactly right about infections. A lot of times burn survivors, if they survive the initial burn, they can live 567 week here, but then they will succumb to their injury due to infections. I've been in an hospital, you're susceptible to a lot of infection.

You get staff, you can get pneumonia and your body is obviously very vulnerable. I was burned my entire neck head and face for three. I mean, they had to remove absolutely everything from my collar. And you have attended my presentation.

You've seen those graphic pictures. And I make a point to say that once I got to that point, after that first surgery of about seven hours, all of a sudden it didn't matter so much what those firefighters did, the police officers or even what the doctors had done. I had now got to a point where I did have only one chance for survival. That's to become a tissue recipient because I had lost all that coverage, all those fluid, the necessary hydration.

There is no way that I'm going to live without the donated tissue to help me through those initial surgeries and to protect me from infection, to give me the hydration. This is so much to go into with obviously I've never been to medical school, but my doctors have still to the day they shake their heads. Yeah. And your miracle.

Well, I'm working around. And to hear you talking about all this, I'm just struck by the way you sound so, can I say, accepting of what has happened for you? And I can't even begin to imagine what the psychological effects must have been for you and for your family. Would you mind sharing a little bit about that?

No, not at all, because there's even times I think to myself, like, that maybe it's odd. And that I am so upbeat about it. There's in certain ways I'm fascinated. Whenever I drive, I still live in the city of things.

Whenever I drive through the intersection where it took place, I find myself hoping I'll get caught by a red light so that I can sit there for 30 to 60 seconds and visualize what happened, what the firefighters did, what the police officers did. I was knocked on patches. I didn't see it, but I put it in short in such detail and I'm fascinated by what they were able to accomplish and what they did for me. And again, I'm just grateful.

I'm thankful all the time and so many things that happened throughout the course of my life since so many milestones, so many things that I have gotten to experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. Yes, I was burned. My experience was so significantly changed. I mean, I carry a tremendous amount of scars and disfigurements.

I travel all over the country. Sharing my story, I go through airports. I go to restaurants that feed myself. I check into hotels.

I'm constantly facing my own adversity, but I can always find a reason to be thankful. I can always find something to motivate me and inspire me. I've been so incredibly blessed by all the people who contributed to my survival and my success. That's when you're walking my daughter down the aisle, having another baby after the accident.

I mean, that's all you need to shift your focus is some perspective. And I've even thought, I thought the day that I walked my daughter down the aisle, it was January 2018, it was a pretty short walk and I was very caught up in the emotions. But I did think, who is my tissue donor and did that person get to do this? To get them to experience what I am, I can only pray and hope that they did because it's a moment in time that makes everything else completely.

Absolutely. Whoop it. My goodness. Obviously, we have lots of questions to get to you.

But I want to talk about your eyesight because during your talk, what got me is that you couldn't see for a time and please clarify and all that. And then you were grateful because you didn't think you could handle it at that time and you were in the hospital and seeing what you looked like at that point following the accident. So take us back where you are now. I understand that you can function normally.

Well, yeah, going back to that initial waking up from the coma and trying to even come closer to my mind around what I'm being told. What's going on? I'm not understanding why I can't open my eyes or I can't move. And slowly day by day, getting a little more understanding and I'll always remember the most possible but terrifying thing I've ever experienced and the worst part of the process was my blindness.

But I was able at some point in my life, I don't know if it was five years ago, ten years ago, but I became again thankful for the blessing that I was not able to see myself that day because recovering from that mentally would have been a very big challenge. And my cornice was severely damaged when he eaten the fires. So my blindness was the 100% darkness was due to they covered what was left of my eyes with skin grass and they opened up about nine months later, a very, very blurry vision. But after going from complete darkness to seeing at least light and colors again was an incredible sensation.

I was able to start working with the doctors and they accomplished a lot of everything from using my own blood because our bodies healed themselves the best. And I was put blood drops in my eyes and stopped the scarring, rebuilt my eyelids. And I got to back to where I was wearing contact lenses to each eye, soft anti-hard lens and I got back to where I could drive to and from work I was working as a homicide detective and investigating these detailed murder scenes. So they accomplished a lot as time has gone by and I've gotten a little bit older.

My right eye, it doesn't blink or close. The, the, I just have no muscles, tendons, nerve, nothing on the right side of my face. So my eye has been exposed to the elements all these years in the scarring, finally took over. So I did lose my vision in my right eye, but I'm not a candidate right now for a coronal transplant because I don't have the proper coverage.

And thankfully my left eye still works very well with that hard lens in and I can still see, you know, to drive and to read and detect and answer my emails. And again, I just every day I wake up and I can see something so whole as it might not be 2020, but I shouldn't have even had the site that I do for the past 18 years. So I hope it lasts a long time, but I'm definitely not going to complain. Well, you're will to live and you're just enduring all this is just a phenomenal act that you've gone through and more power to you for being so strong and being able to handle all this.

And I'm sure you wish it wasn't one that was having to be told, but at the same time for you to share this sort of information is just fantastic. Well, thank you so much. And I really give credit to so many people around me, my support system. I was it's humbling, but I was completely set up for something like this because I could have a career that I wanted.

I was 28 years old. I had a wife, a few kids. My parents and grandparents were still alive. My friends, I had so many people lifting me up.

And once I was able to give way to my vulnerability, I mean, I would do a lot of our time. I'm not going to lie. I have so many tears or so much anger. There was so much fear of the unknown and being reduced to nothing as a 20 year old man was kind of a little bit more than that vulnerability of way to that vulnerability and give up control and let the people who love me and support me take care of me.

Then things are doing great. And again, all these years later, I can reflect on that and be so thankful. And all these people, you know, my family has moved on. My father passed away almost two years ago.

My grandparents have passed away, but they've been a circle of life has gone away. And I'm keeping up with that because it's working in the world that we do with tissue organ and eye donation. You see it all the time. A lot of people aren't that lucky.

They don't get the circle of life. And I've gotten it so far. And so I'm again, always appreciative. And we certainly appreciate you.

I can tell you, you know, we help families, donors, families through the initial grieving states. And of course, we get a lot of inspiration from them. Oftentimes, we don't get to interact with recipients and get to meet recipients, you know, simply because of the logistics and, you know, with transplant centers and things like that. But I can tell you your story.

I have so many colleagues out there throughout the country who we've talked back and forth a numerous times about you and your story and how inspiring you are to us. And you know, I know this wasn't the path that you were initially planning, but I can certainly say that the path that you ended up on was certainly one that has an impact on so many people. And I just want to thank you for that and for being so inspiring and paying it forward like you do. Well, thank you very much.

Certainly not the path I've chosen. But I think all of you, I'm sure you can pull up some pictures from your past 10, 20 years ago and think, wow, wouldn't be bad if I could write a letter to that person. I don't know what's coming. And of course, I would have never dreamt.

I'm going to be who I am today, where I am doing what I'm doing. But I mean, we can't make those plans in life, of course, because it didn't change. And I love that you at least mentioned you. I have so much respect to you and your colleagues.

I could never imagine dealing or working with the donor families because you have your own diversity and you take on other people and you see it. I sincerely thank you for that. But that is why I love going and sharing my story to the OPOs and the tissue banks around the country because I do want the staff. I do want everybody from the people who answer the phones and dispatch to the people in the room that are properly packaging everything all the way to the doctors who are recovering organs and tissue to let them know, hey, look at what has happened.

What you do, don't ever get lost that it doesn't matter because hopefully I can be the face in the voice of war. I can't imagine having millions of people out there right now who are thankful. You are good. You are very, very good at this.

And you talk a lot about those physicians, doctors that do the recoveries, but it's not even just us in the recovery world and the physicians, but there are others that you've impacted like like corners. You've recently come to the Louisiana Corners Collaborative and presented to them. And we've gotten such good feedback. And I can tell you, you know, they also don't get to see that side.

They are also immersed, you know, in the death and grieving. And they don't see the benefits firsthand. And for them to see the impact that they have by releasing to us so that we can recover so that people like you can receive that gift of life is it's just it's a much more far reaching than even, you know, we can even imagine. Corners, investigators, and then you were a law enforcement yourself.

So that shows them another side of it. So that's that's incredible. Thank you. I love going and sharing my story with that group.

My first time to live here. And yeah, I felt so empowered before even walking the room thinking about who was in there. And, you know, first of all, we're all just human beings. We all have a story.

We all have things that we've had to overcome and get through. And we know that something else is coming. But to share my entire story, start to finish and then to get, you know, when I'm talking to other law enforcement officers and sharing what my peers and my friends did for me, not just what I went through, but what my support system did because they might be faced with that or they have been and they can reflect on how they helped somebody who was in your mind of duty or what am I going to do if it happens to me all the way up to, yes, I went back to work. I wasn't going to give up on my career, but then I was a homicide detective.

So I got to see the incredible work. I mean, detectives, they might not talk about it every day, but rely so heavily on the expertise of the corner in the investigation. And it is a very difficult world. So it's working every day and you have to find your reasons, your love, the importance of it.

And then you also have to find some humor. I mean, you know, from my presentation, we might cry a little bit, but we're going to laugh a lot. I'm going to be very much. So that was an incredible audience.

I got to touch on every aspect that I'm so passionate about, not just life, but the careers that I believe so much in and to give thanks for what they're doing and maybe just hit the reset button for a second and remind us, this is why I do what I do. And you know, when you spoke to our LOPA group, we were just like, man, that's just one cool dude. And I like to talk about, you know, the women behind the men. And so as you sat there, like the whole time I was thinking, man, that's tough for him, right?

And then tougher, your parents, grandparents, that kind of thing. And then I was thinking, man, you have a family at home and how this impacts them. So, you know, whenever there's a tragedy, it just depends on your seat at the table, like how you view things. Tell us about that and how that worked for you and your family.

Well, I think everybody would agree with me when I say it is easier to go through something than to watch the body love with it. When you don't have control, when you maybe are helpless, you watch somebody that you love suffer and then add into it your own part of this, you know, my wife, for us to be not that far, you know, four and a half years ago, our marriage and to have two kids at home, her responsibilities were huge. And then she's seeing like the change of my appearance, if I'm going to live, I'm going to die day to day, I truly can't imagine. But her love and support was so important.

I mean, when I woke up, I called just a strength and calm tone and her voice was huge. I mean, it's almost like I knew that I was okay, just simply listening to her and then to have my kids and have something bigger than myself to live for. Of course, it had a different effect on the young girl, the baby. So my mom was devastated.

I would be, I have three kids and I have two kids and I'm like, if that ever happened to them, I don't know, but I would handle it. But I also love all these years later, if you were a fly on the wall in my house, you wouldn't know anything ever took place. I mean, my wife and I have been together for a very long time now. We have the same hopes and dreams of most parents.

We have the same struggles that I mean, marriage isn't easy. I don't know if your life is perfect, marriage is difficult. And you throw in something like this and it makes it that much harder. But we have the same arguments.

We have the same discussions about our kids and she has a career. I have my career and we just make it work day to day. And I like to stress that to people too because I know that people sometimes you call it my story and I'm sharing that the bad parts are my injuries and some of the pain and the pictures and what that was like and everything I talk about with my family is the good stuff because I love the brag about them. And I love to show off what they've accomplished.

But I mean, there's no such thing as a fairy tale. It is difficult. But also you talk about the women behind you. My daughter is the most proud of.

She's 25 years old out. She was seven years old when this happened to her and she's 25 now. And not only is she married and I believe going to be a better rounded person for what she went through. But she is in a doctor program doing developmental child psychology because she wants to help children that were affected by the trauma similar to her.

And so much good comes out of it. And her life is better because of what she suffered a long time ago. And I'm very proud of that. It gives me the perspective every day, another layer.

So you had two kids before the accident and then you had a child after? Yes, my children, my seven-year-old daughter and my son turned three when I was at a common. And then we had to pay the 18 months after the accident. He was about 16 years old.

Wow, you know the teenager too? I know. Thrill that in a mix. Yeah, he's and he loves his life.

We talk about it a lot. He's a very compassionate, a couple young man, very appreciative. We talk a lot about being an organ and tissue donor. They all my kids, they're already signed up for it on their licenses with the state of Arizona.

But they understand that aspect of it. And yeah, I'm going to be an empty nester already. I think I am young. And in two and a half years, I walk to college and then I'm going to be sitting there going, what do you know?

And you get to see all that and you get to experience and getting more money from my meal plan and parking college. And you are? That's a fun and parenting. It's never ending ever through something different from one.

But I'm so glad. I'm thankful for every day I'm not missing out on the people that they are becoming. And it's a great thing to I have simple goals every day of going to a meeting or going into a store and just want to leave places better than I found it. And it's a great ingredient for success.

And I love to look at my kids and I'm very blessed that they turned out the way they have. But even if I like into tomorrow, I'm going to leave the world better than I found it because of them. And that's an awesome thing. We are a great inspiration to your children.

I mean, just to see what you've done. I've been telling that for real. My goodness. I have enjoyed visiting with you again and getting to pick your brain a little bit more.

We appreciate you sharing your story. You are one of the reasons we do what we do. People want to get in touch with you. They want to learn more about you.

Where would you send them? To my website, burningshield.com. If you, my email is all over the pages and I'm the only one to get them. They come directly to me.

So I'd be happy if anybody did that. I'm my last name. It's kind of hard to spell. I'm on Instagram and Twitter, Shekterly, underscore JAS and my book is available on Amazon.

And I want to thank all of you and all of your colleagues listening, not just for having me on the show. I really appreciate you giving me this platform. But I really want everybody to know the importance of what you do. Because not go unnoticed and it does not go unrewarded because every day I get to live a life that is because of so many people who did so many different jobs back then.

I'm very thankful to all of you. Wow. I love it. Now look, we're getting hands-waved and all this stuff and they said, you've got to read the book.

If you haven't read the book, so I'm assuming the book title is burningshield. I'm very proud of it. It took me eight years and three authors. You have to put the book.

The author landed in the podium. He did an incredible job capturing everybody's voice that was involved. The firefighters, the doctors, my family. He really documented everybody's perspective and what they did.

It's a compelling story and it's fun to be able to travel around and share that. Awesome. Well, we enjoy meeting you in person. We enjoy visiting with you.

Thanks for what you do. Thanks for the positive. We're all smiling like this guy's cool. Awesome.

I want to have that outlook. How amazing. Now your last name is Spelling. You might want to go to burningshield.com and check that out.

You can look at it several times. Let it let it in. That's right. Jason, we certainly appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you. Thank you so much. It's that time on the Get the Life podcast to give our own Sally the floor. Right, Joe?

Yeah, of course we're talking about grief. But this time we're going to be focusing a little more on those that are overlooked during the grieving process, the siblings. That's right. You know, one of the things that thanks to a co-worker that reminded me the other day that very little is talked about, we talk about parents that lose children and spouses or, you know, grandparents, whatever the case may be, but we just don't talk that much about brother sister dad.

And so when I started looking into this, I found some information by Dr. Hebert, or maybe it's Hebert, excuse me. And she said one of the things that she started researching was because of her clientele that would come in saying, I just really kind of feel like I've been left behind. And I don't know why.

I don't know how to talk about this with my parents or, you know, of my other surviving siblings, you know, and so she said when she looked into it, she found a very little information too. So she started really delving into it and said it's often misunderstood not only by the parents, but by family and friends and counselors, because most of the focus is on a parent that loses a child or the children of a parent and to the spouse of an adult sibling. But then what about the other siblings? They're kind of just left out there on struggling on their own.

And many times as a younger person, but my sister died and I couldn't understand what was going on because my parents just could not talk about it. They were having a very difficult time, you know, themselves. And it's been most of this has been overlooked in the literature because even mental health counselors have problems understanding it and knowing, well, how do I talk to this person now? And you know, kind of my thing, you guys, is we all go through losses in life.

And sometimes we do forget the relationship factor. But then I kind of go back to also the point that when something leaves us, when someone leaves us and however that may happen, there is a grief factor that does come into play, again, regardless of the relationship. So I don't know would you address or does one address, you know, a sibling differently than you would if it was, you know, the mom or the dad, this sort of thing. And I think that it's just like that people have not really thought much about because do we differentiate out that much difference there?

Okay. But I know too that many times like I know for my mother, she just kind of retreated into her own grief and then dad got busy in his business. And because, you know, back those days and even today, you know, the women are much more emotional men don't want to express their grief, you know, like women will do so. And that's not all the time, but it's expressed in different ways.

But I was very lucky. I had a loving, caring aunt that started explaining things to me and told me that I was valuable and what, you know, what my life could be. And I thought, wow, that hadn't been for her. Things might have turned out a whole lot differently.

So, you know, I really owe a lot to her. And I think other people probably find that too, that they've found others in their life when something like this similar has happened. But I know that just experiencing death as a child, that it does become a lifelong process of figuring it out, knowing where all these buttons are triggered or whatever come from. And then once you kind of get to that, then you know, you kind of know where you need to go with life.

Yeah. I'm thinking back, I just did a podcast not too long ago about Savannah Smiles and they had started a grief camp for siblings that have experienced death in some way, shape or form. And one of our families, that was their concern. I'm dealing with my own grief.

How do I help my children that lost a sister? And so, so it was a tough walk and still is. And, you know, too, I was looking for different resources. And there's very few that I could find that do, you know, except for what we talked to Emily about for her daughter.

So, I'm wondering if other folks here, you know, everywhere might be listening to us. Are there resources that you're aware of for families that, you know, for their kids, for, you know, brother, sister, if you know that we should like to hear from you about it. All right. Good topic.

You want something covered by Sally Info at the get-to-life.org. Shoot us a message. In every episode of the Get-to-Life we honor a hero. Today's hero, Brittany Kaelleil.

And her story comes to us from her mom, Raquel Gonzalez. And Raquel is also an ambassador with one legacy in California, and she helps promote organ tissue and eye donation. Raquel writes, one night I remember having a chat with her and she said, Mom, are you an organ donor? I really wasn't sure where she was going with the conversation, but she pulled out her new driver's license and showed me that she was.

And we were just chatting about it, not being very serious. She said, Mom, if I ever die, I want my eyes to be donated because they are my best feature. I told her, whatever, okay, okay, let's just not talk about this subject, because she wasn't going to die before me. I knew that three months later I would have to be faced with this decision.

I tried to think back on that moment, but it is very blurry. I just remember being brought into a small little room and her doctor and another lady were there, and they started talking about allowing Brittany to be an organ donor. She was young and healthy, of course, and if I had to make that decision, I know I would have consented, but I'm so very grateful that Brittany had already made that decision for herself. It is not a decision any parent should have to make.

If you would like to know more about our hero stories, please go to our hero stories section at LOPA.org. At this time we pause and say thank you to Brittany for the Give the Life. There are questions and answers segment today here on The Get to Life. If my child puts that little heart on his driver's license indicating he is an organ donor, as his mother, do I have to allow this in the event of his death?

Joe? Well, I've got a couple answers here, but essentially many states don't allow you to sign up until you're 18, but other states such as Louisiana allow you to sign up when you get your driver's license at 16 or per minute, 16, 17, but it doesn't become legal until you become 18. So up until that point, as a mother, you would still provide authorization. Yeah, that's why we encourage discussions.

That's why we are out in the communities. We're educating. We just went to a freshman high and they say, I'm going to go and talk to my parents about this, but my mom is not into donation right now. So we'll just bring home the facts, start having the conversations, right?

That's where we think that that is needed. Education is certainly the key. So we appreciate the question. If you have a question, you'd like for us to tackle info at thegiftedlife.org.

And that'll do it for episode 105 of the Gifted Life. Yeah, special thanks to Jason Shekterly. Wow. Yeah, you got that right too.

Of course, for sharing his inspiring story with us, going through such a tragedy in his life, and then having a tissue donation and being so thankful for it and then paying it forward to everyone else. Right. It's really, he's been inspiring to us and of course everyone in the industry that he's coming to contact with. That's positive attitude.

That's so powerful. So isn't it that? Like it. So if what you've heard has inspired you to become an organ tissue or cornea donor, please go to registerme.org.

One stop shop, it's that simple. Now we hope that you go out and do something that you wouldn't normally do to help us make life happen. We're a team and we thank you for listening. This is a production of the Louisiana Organ Perfuturment Agency, our LOPA.

The gift of life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Boudreau and Sally Gentry. Our executive producer is Kirsten Hines. Producer is Shalom Caraway. Intern is Rebecca Rannem, and we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.