Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Stewart, I am inspired by your awareness and appreciation for the gift of life given by an organ donor.  Your honesty disarms me.  I too am "very much more amazed, and interested in Kathy... to be an organ donor is the epitome of altruism ... The recipient has everything to gain..."

I trust you are not foreshadowing your demise.  Take care.

Stewart Myrent

​Janis, you may trust that I am NOT foreshadowing my own demise.  The only reason I ended my last post with,"...if I'm still with us.", was to convey my belief in the indiscriminate & random fortunes of life.  However, I am feeling in tip-top shape & fully expect to see you all in September.  (But, of course, that's exactly when things don't go as planned.)  Thank you for your kind thoughts.

Paul Richard Hain

Hi Stewart and Janis,

Kathy is the main person in my story.  I'm glad you see what an amazing act it was on her part.  It was difficult enough for me to accept that I was on the cadaver transplant list waiting for someone to die so that I might live. I thought, "this shouldn't be.  Someone has to die for me to live.  I don't feel that worthy."  Finally, I accepted that the death of a donor was going to happen anyway.  If it was my turn, I reasoned it was acceptable to me.

Then, a transplant surgeon told me I would not get a cadaver liver because it is allocated by a strict liver chemistry formula (MELD) that is based on how most livers deteriorate from alcoholism and Hepatitis B and C.  My disease, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) killed my liver, but did not produce the liver enzymes to be measured by the MELD protocol.  No transplant hospital in the United States would make an exception for me.  He told me I was denied and that the only possiblilty was for us to find a living donor.  PSC affects 00.05% of the population.  I met with the doctor in charge of enforcing cadaver liver distribution across the entire Midwest. He confirmed I had no chance and that the committee that developed the standards knows a few diseases are not covered, but that they would not make any exceptions.  My choice was, a) find a living donor or b) take the death sentence.

Kathy is a very well educated young woman.  She was 33 years old when she read about my case on my daughter Heather's Facebook page.  Though they occasionally saw each other since graduating high school fifteen years earlier, they kept in touch via Facebook.  The girls were marching and concert band nerds playing all manner of percussion instruments.  They even recorded the drum line tattoo for Richard Dreyfuss' movie, "Mr. Holland's Opus" back in the 90's.  Dee and I loved having her musical friends around and we followed them everywhere they travelled for competition events. We casually knew her and her parents.  They were polite, caring and fun-loving people.

Kathy graduated with honors from UW Madison.  She worked for American Family Insurance headquarters in Madison for ten years.  She and her husband, Pete had been married for some time. They did not have any children, just their professions.  Pete worked as a Director for a philanthropic organization serving indigenous native Americans.  He was offered a promotion that required moving from Madison to Wausau, WI.  Kathy did not like to give up her job.  American Family told her they had a good-sized branch in Wausau and they would arrange a transfer for her.  All the pieces seemed to be coming together.

When they got to Wausau, American Family told her a mistake occurred and that there was no job for her.  You can imagine how crushed she was.  Her job was a big part of her life. She and Pete are people of faith, quietly keeping their disappointment to themselves.  Kathy wanted some answers for why this happened to her. .

Kathy was trying to discern what new possibilities there were when she saw Heather's Facebook page about my disease.  She called Heather and knew she was a blood type O+, just like me.  She wanted to know about the testing protocol at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.  This was right after Thanksgiving 2011. She submitted to very extensive testing by hospital social worker, psychologist, and a full battery of MRI, heart, lungs, general health and surgeons that tried to talk her out of volunteering followed by a long wait for a decision.

Heather and my neighbor were blood type matches and had been tested, but were not an anatomical match (meaning the location of their bile duct, hepatic artery and portal vein did not match how mine were arranged.  Typically they have to test 5 people to find one that will match. When they cut the donor's piece off, there is no turning back.  They have to know to the greatest extent possible that the transplant will proceed.

I am going to tell you the rest just as she told me. Before being tested, she explained to Pete what she wanted to do.  They are both in the giving/caring for people business, which I think explains their commitment.  He said he would support her decision to go ahead.  Kathy got a call from the transplant center after Christmas confirming that she was a perfect match for me.  They asked her again to change her mind and that all they would tell me was that she was not a match.  She said, count me in and when can we do the surgery?  The hospiral said it would be 12-13 weeks because for a living donor surgery, they need two operating rooms,a primary transplant surgical team for her and one for me.  And, they needed a third team to take over if primary team members need a break.  Her surgery was 5 hours and mine was 13 1/2 hours.  Very demanding and tiring.

At the luncheon Kathy said the most difficult hurdle was telling her mother and father and brothers, being not sure how to tell it or what their reaction would be.  They listened to her thinking about the need she could supply and that the reason for her recent disappointments now became very clear.  They were fully behind her decision.  She never waivered.  She knew even before she was tested that she was going to be my donor.  Heather and I had exhaused all possible donors.  I had weeks or perhaps a few months to live, but now I was going to make that 12 weeks one way or another.  It was a very joyful, uplifting luncheon.  Kathy left for home.

I think faith and prayer are very powerful forces.  It may not be for everyone, but I accepted help from everyone in their own way.  Hundreds of people were praying for us. It made a huge difference in my life.

A few days after the luncheon, the transplant center called Kathy and said they had a cancellation and could do the surgeries in 10 days.  Both of us accepted this.  It was the solution for me!

On the day of surgery, Kathy and I were on gurneys in the hall outside the operating rooms.  Her medical team lead doctor came out and said; I'm going to repeat myself so Paul hears this time.  You are a perfecty healthy person.  We do not recommend surgery on you for that reason.  I recommend that you call this off right now and we all will go home for the day.  Kathy said she was there to donate part of her liver and let's get started.

My next memory was a groggy return to reality the next day after surgery.  "How was Kathy."  I needed to know she was all right.  Not too much later, Pete wheeled her into my room.  She had a smile on her face and so did I.  In that short time after surgery, my natural skin and eye color had returned.  I knew we both would recover.

She went home about a week after surgery.  The part of her liver she donated grew back in two months.  The liver is the only organ that regenerates itself.  I stayed at Mariott's Residence Inn for another three weeks because of daily visits to the transplant center.  Finally, I got released and went home.

Kathy and Pete had a baby girl three years ago and a baby boy last year about this time.  They are a happy family.  Their mother will have a great story to tell them about how she saved someone's life when they get older.  

The whole experience seemed to unfold according to a plan that wasn't visible at the time.  All of that took place and then life resumed to normal afterwards.  Our "transplantiversary" was February 8.  We decided to celebrate when the weather gets better and we can go to some family place where Heather and Kathy and Pete's children can enjoy themselves, too.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

One Year Later

As the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School nears its one-year mark, the city of Parkland, FL is recognizing February 14th as a Day of Service and Love, dedicated to those who were lost in an act of senseless violence.  

As part of the observation, Stoneman Douglas will have a non-academic school day ending at 11:40 AM.  Other Broward County Public Schools will have regular school schedules.  

At 2:21 PM, the City of Parkland will hold a moment of silence to honor the victims of the shooting.  At 10:17 AM, the entire school district and community will recognize a moment of silence.  

Community and volunteer events are planned into the weekend.  

Stewart Myrent

​Janis, thanks for the update on the Stoneman Douglas H.S. activities - I love those kids & the community seems to be rallying behind them.  But the thing I really want to address, is Paul's last post.  Paul, I want to thank you for your compelling & informative post.  You described everything about Kathy, that I was curious about, but her husband, Pete, is, also, a most interesting person, "...a Director for a philanthropic organization serving indigenous native Americans."  I was wondering if he had input into Kathy's decision (couldn't imagine that he wouldn't), but found later, that, he had.  But the story of them getting to Wausau & finding there was NO job for Kathy w/American Family, was heartbreaking.  Another thing that amazed me, was that, along the way, all the 'professionals', trying to talk her out of her decision to, in fact, be a donor.  I thought the part about meeting with her family members & the ensuing discussions with them & her feelings about all of that, were fascinating.  I thought at the beginning of the story, when you mentioned they had no children, that that was too bad.  Because, I felt, that they were 2 people who SHOULD have children, so I was very happy to hear that they now have 2 kids.  There are probably thousands of ways to be a good parent & probably a few dozen ways to be a bad parent.  Fortunately, most people are in the majority.  But, I'm guessing just about everybody has met a few people who should NOT be parents.  To me, Kathy & Pete represent the ideal of altruism.  I undetrstand how people of faith can look at your amazing story & have the faith that it was all according to God's plan  What else could explain it?  Everything was against you, Paul, the timing (primarily), the fact that you needed a living donor & everything else that made it, probably, a 1-2% chance that you would possibly survive.  Paul , I am sure you have thought this, but you are the luckiest man you know.  I have to say, though, that the older I get, the more I believe that I wiil take 'good luck' over just about anything else.  Good luck is always a winner, and much less painful.  Paul, thank again for the post.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

“Why do we write?”  

   We want to be heard.

Some hug the past,

  others live in the present...

                even look to the future.

Will we leave the world a better place than we found it?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

On the eve of the one-year mark of the Valentine's Massacre in Parkland, FL, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee advanced legislation that would require universal background checks for gun purchases.  Current law only requires licensed firearm dealers to conduct background checks before transferring a gun.  People seeking to transfer guns would have to visit a licensed firearms dealer to run a background check.  The legislation offers exemptions for gifts between family members as well as temporary transfers for use at a shooting range or hunting, or an exemption for temporary transfers that are "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm."

Though bipartisan support for the legislation is weak, the bill has bipartisan sponsorship and is titled the “Bipartisan Background Checks Act.”  The Democrats hope to bring the measure to the House floor for a vote in the coming weeks.

In 1999 in the aftermath of the Columbine shooting the NRA endorsed requiring background checks for gun show sales - since then the NRA has reversed course and calls this legislation a "broadside against lawful firearm ownership in America."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has offered no sign that he would bring up the background checks expansion measure in the upper chamber.

The House Judiciary Committee also approved a bill that would close the so-called "Charleston loophole" which allows a gun sale to go forward if a background check isn't completed within three days by extending the review period to ten days, and allowing a purchaser to request a review if the background check isn't completed by then.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Stewart Myrent

​Janis, thank you for the roses on Valentine's Day (don't worry - I know it is a collective gift for all of us, not a personal gift to me).  Steve, I just got done watching a Night at the Garden (which occurred almost 80 years ago, to the day).  It was extremely chilling & disturbing, particularly, watching all those morons giving the Nazi salute.  I saw from the marquee, that it was sponsored by the Pro American committee, which as far as I could determine, was a front for the Nazi party in America.  Do I see similarities with what's going on in our country now?  You bet.  By the way, the speaker with the German accent - he seemed to believe that all the attendants knew exactly who he was, but I have no clue, as to his identity (do you have any idea who this guy WAS?).  Paul, I do have one more question for you.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had no idea that the medical 'professionals', all along the way, during this process, were trying to dissuade Kathy from being an organ donor.  At any time during the process, did you ever think, "Enough with the trying to talk her out of it - she's already made up her mind to do the 'right thing', so, leave her alone about it.  AND my life depends on this."?  Just curious, because I could see myself thinking just that.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Actually the roses are for the Grow Project Love Garden at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.  Peaceful Parkland which was recognized as the safest city in Florida is now Purposeful Parkland.  I am totally inspired by the MSD Strong Community and all they are doing to support healing in their schools and greater Parkland area.  At the interfaith memorial ceremonies it was the Baptist preacher who recognized he was in a public park and spoke in support of the young Parkland advocates and common gun sense legislation... he's made up his mind to do the "right thing."  Some of the students shared the depth of their pain in poetry they have written.  It was an amazing experience to be anonymous in a sea of students who seem so familiar to me.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

For you who might be interested -

Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Michael Bennet, and Jeff Merkley voted for the budget bill yesterday.

Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren (and Ed Markey) voted against the budget bill.

Republican presidential hopefuls also voted against the budget bill.

Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill, declare a national emergency to redirect funds to build the wall, and then fly to Mar-a-Lago.  The national emergency is a fiction created by Trump to justify funding a wall that is necessary only to satisfy his voters.

Stewart Myrent

​Steve, thank you for your quick response about who's that Nazi.  Fritz Kuhn - the name is not familiar to me - although as "the American Hitler", you would think I would have heard of this guy.  But I'm sure I heard a German accent coming out of his sick mouth, so my guess is that he was NOT a native-born American.  Also, I did notice that huge portrait of George Washington & thought, "What would he have thought about this gathering?"  Also, Paul, not so quick response to my question about what you were thinking, the whole time the 'professionals' were trying to dissuade Kathy from being your much-needed donor.  I'm sorry, but I am very curious about what you were thinking, at the time.  Also, Janis, I am a little disappointed to find out that your Valentine's Day roses, were not a gift for all of us, but were related to the Parkland kids.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Trump Is the GOP’s National Emergency

THE NEW YORKER

The New Republican Strategy for Dealing with the Emergency That Is Trump: Pray

By Susan B. Glasser

February 14, 2019

President Trump has already begun the process of memorializing his epic defeat as a victory  FINISH THE WALL  and has dragged congressional Republicans into a whole new fight.

At around 11 A.M. on Wednesday, a weary-looking Senator Mitch McConnell came to the Senate floor. “It’s time to get this done,” the Majority Leader said. McConnell, of course, was talking about the deal that his negotiators had reached with Democrats to pass a bill that would keep the U.S. government from shutting down once again—over President Trump’s demand for money to fund his proposed border wall. As always, there remained one big problem: whether Trump himself would go along with it. Soon after the deal was announced, John Cornyn, a Republican senator from Texas, flew back with the President to Washington from El Paso, on Air Force One, on Tuesday. He and others urged Trump to accept it and move on, but Cornyn was nowhere near sure that it would happen. “My hope is he recognizes this is an incremental win,” the senator told Politico. “We’ll hold our breath.”

No one these days, not even the loyal Republican guard on Capitol Hill, can predict what Trump, increasingly cornered by the results of a midterm election that handed Democrats control of the House of Representatives, will do or say. There is no Team Trump from the President’s point of view, only a leader and his followers, yet the entire Trump Presidency is an extended reminder of the fact that it’s awfully hard to follow if you don’t know where the leader wants you to go. “I would have preferred we not had the shutdown,” Steve Scalise, the Republican Whip in the House, said Thursday morning, without knowing if there might be another. When CNN caught up with his G.O.P. colleague Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who cut the deal, Shelby was unsure of what Trump would do, as well. “I pray” that he will sign the spending bill, Shelby said. At around that same time, the Republican Chuck Grassley was on the Senate floor, asking the entire chamber to join in seeking divine intervention with Trump. “Let’s all pray that the President will have the wisdom to sign the bill, so that the government doesn’t shut down,” he said, as Washington waited, once again, on its capricious President.

So it’s finally come to this: only God can stop Trump, as members of his own party are admitting that they’ve basically given up trying. Sure enough, a few hours after Grassley spoke, McConnell returned to the Senate floor and announced that the President would sign the bill but also declare a national emergency in order to fund the wall. The whole episode served only to underscore the plight of congressional Republicans under Trump: holding their breath and praying that Trump doesn’t humiliate them even more than he already has with the shutdown drama; praying that something worse doesn’t happen, such as a Mueller report that forces them to publicly choose between their President and their country; praying that the Democrats will somehow overplay their hand so badly that it changes the subject in next year’s elections from Trump and all his divisiveness. “That soft, shuffling sound you hear is congressional Republicans stepping away from President Trump,” the political commentator John Harwood wrote, in his CNBC column on Tuesday. In the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, the lead editorial begged Trump to declare “border victory” and go home. “The bipartisan deal is his only good way out of this budget box canyon,” the paper said. Underscoring the point, the editors ran an op-ed on the page across from the editorial headlined “Trump’s wall crumbles under the law of diminishing returns.” The piece argued that Trump is in such trouble now because he “promised to be a dealmaker, not a conviction politician,” and he just doesn’t have deals to brag about.

Watching Republicans publicly lobby their guy to give in this week was an extraordinary tutorial in their challenge of trying to manage an unmanageable President. They had to convince Trump that a loss was a win, albeit, as Cornyn put it, a highly “incremental” one. Even for Trump, this was a dubious argument. Still, Trump has one political skill that is useful to his allies in a situation like this: the desire, and ability, to create an alternate reality when the actual reality does not suffice. The facts here are terrible for the President, as they have been since late December, when Trump reneged on the previous deal reached by congressional negotiators and, essentially, unilaterally shut down a large part of the federal government. Thirty-five days later, that shutdown ended ignominiously for the President, when too many members of his own party had had enough. The two-week delay that Trump bought himself at the time also has now ended without a victory. Instead, the compromise agreed to on the Hill allows for $1.375 billion in border-security funding—far less than what was on offer in a deal Trump rejected last year. And, in another loss, those funds can only be used to construct fifty-five miles of new border barriers of the type the government has been building since well before Trump became President. In other words: no wall.

For any other politician, this would be a humiliating loss, which is the reason why Republicans on Capitol Hill were so uncertain, right up until the last minute, whether the President would sign it. Trump, however, has already begun the process of memorializing his epic defeat as a victory, and will claim that his emergency declaration is more than sufficient grounds to move money around from elsewhere in the federal budget to accomplish his border plans. Even if the courts shoot him down on that one, it still probably won’t matter to the President, who is likely to brag that he has won, anyway. On Monday, in fact, he held a campaign rally in El Paso underneath a banner that urged, “Finish the Wall!” Never mind that the wall is not even begun, and likely never will be; never mind that Mexico, despite the President’s oft-repeated promise, is not going to pay for it; never mind the details of the congressional compromise. Trump’s self-protective alternate-reality machine found a way around the facts. “The wall is very, very on its way,” he said on Wednesday. “We are building as we speak.” He added that the nonexistent wall, which is not being finished or even built, would, in fact, be harder than Mount Everest to climb, which instantly became one of those Trump-era tweets that you’re not sure is a joke or something the President of the United States actually said.

Given that this came only a couple of hours after the Washington Post reported that Trump recently installed a “room-sized ‘golf simulator’ ” in the White House, at a cost of roughly fifty thousand dollars, so that he can play a full eighteen holes without leaving the property, it seemed like a moment to remember how tenuous the line between parody and political reality has become in Trump’s Washington. At the very least, it helps explain why the President has so infrequently left the White House this winter.

Meanwhile, not everyone has been taking a vacation from reality, and the nature of the Democratic threat to Trump from the newly empowered House leaders is becoming clearer. This week, two House committees, Intelligence and Judiciary, signalled an aggressive approach to investigating Trump—without waiting for the report of the special counsel, Robert Mueller. House Democrats “plan a vast probe of Trump and Russia—with a heavy focus on money-laundering,” as Mike Allen declared in his Axios morning newsletter, reporting from a briefing, which we both attended, with a House Democrat. Trump “is not in a position to draw red lines” and block Democrats from looking into his finances, the member told a roomful of reporters. The House Democrats’ investigation could include the financial dealings of Trump and his family not only with Russian interests but also with Saudis and other Gulf states. On the House Judiciary Committee, the new chairman this week hired two well-known Democratic lawyers who have publicly led the calls for an obstruction-of-justice investigation of Trump, which could lead to his impeachment.

A new conventional wisdom seems to have formed in recent weeks that the Mueller investigation is all but over, that it won’t be the knockout blow to the President many Democrats had anticipated, or that it may become the subject of an enormous fight with the Trump Justice Department over even transmitting its conclusions to Congress. Impeachment, while supported by the Party’s base, is unlikely to happen—or so this line of reasoning has it. But this week’s developments suggest that another course is possible: emboldened Democrats are neither waiting for Mueller nor limited to whatever it is that Mueller finds. The investigations of Trump are happening, and for now, at least, they are more real than his wall.

Stewart Myrent

​Janis, thank you for the op-ed from the Wall Street Journal - I thought it was very cogently written & well-thought out.  Maybe there's hope for this country - perhaps the country can go back to the days when America was last great.  I'm thinking as far back as 2015, but I'm not sure.  Or is it too late for that?  Steve, although in my last post, I congratulated you on your quick response to my Nazi question & mildly criticized Paul, for not answering a question of mine, I'm sorry, but I have to bring this up.  If you will recall, a few days ago, I asked the first of several times, for an explanation of the picture of you & (I presume your grandkids, or kids [?]), with the moustaches.  I have to say, that, considering your obvious reluctance to address this matter, I am growing even more suspicious about the authenticity of those moustaches.  I'm sure you were hoping that I would forget all about this, but you can disavow yourself of that notion.  I am still curious about your response & I am still waiting for an answer. 

Paul Richard Hain

Stewart,

Kathy’s husband Pete is a man to be admired.  They each had their professions.  When she lost her job, he was there for her providing moral support and love.  She told Pete about her desire to be a donor. Though he may not have known it, at that moment, he shouldered new responsibility. He would be with her through the testing phase and then by her side when she explained her desire to be a donor to the rest of her family.

 The weight on his shoulders was just beginning.  Liver donor surgeries done in the United States had been 100% successful until 6 months before our surgeries.  A liver donor in Colorado suddenly died in recovery. The loss was terrible.  They could not find a reason for the death.  All transplant hospitals reviewed every detail of their surgery procedures. All living donor operations were halted for a time awaiting some finding that would explain what happened.  That never happened.  Finally, the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) changed the age eligibility from 18-60 years to 21-55, thus limiting the potential number of donors.  Living donor surgeries restarted very cautiously.  Pete and Kathy were fully aware of this, raising the concerns for her own health and recovery.  Pete was going to be her caregiver helping with her every need.  It should be a few weeks.  Now, it could be permanent or worse, death.  That was my greatest fear.  What if she got harmed? Or, worse, death?  Those thoughts stayed with me until I knew she was fine after surgery.

Kathy and I had separate medical teams.  It is medically ethical to do it that way.  So, her team leader, Dr. Baker chose to recommend for one last time that Kathy should not go through with the surgery.  My reaction was that I understood what was happening.  My doctors had told me her doctors would try to discourage her.  It was a moment of life or death for me.  I knew what was at stake.  I also had many months previously to learn how to accept my fate.  I was pretty sure Kathy would not change her mind.  Our pre-transplant dinner four days earlier was ample time and discussion to know how resolute she, Pete and her Mom and Dad were to see this through to conclusion.

Kathy and Pete's confidence never waivered. They were united. Their optimism and good humor actually helped us all look forward to the surgeries with confidence.  As far as I can tell, there is only one glaring area of disagreement in their marriage: Pete is a Green Bay Packers fan and Kathy is for, ‘Da Bears. But, they both agree that the University of Wisconsin Badgers are the best college football team.

Kathy and Pete moved into a larger home for their growing family. With grandparents nearby to babysit, Kathy is now doing some part-time HR work.  Pete moved to a new position as the Director of Development for the UW School of Medicine.  

Each of us draws our own conclusions about how all these events came to pass.  From childhood friendships, two women desiring to help me survive fifteen years later, to the remarkable events in Pete and Kathy’s lives that resulted in such an incredible story.  We are made to wonder about this.  Reach your own conclusions.  You are probably right!  Wouldn’t it be great if more stories like this happened more often?

Stewart Myrent

​Paul, thank you so much for your most recent response to my queries.  I have to say that with each additional detail that you have added to your story, it grows increasingly amazing to me that you wound up with as perfect an ending, as was possible.  The fact that your doctors were telling you that her doctors were telling her not to do it, had to be totally disheartening.  I was relatively surprised to hear that, prior to 6 mos. before your surgery, the liver transplants from live donors was 100% successful in the U.S.  I didn't think anything was 100% successful.  I am, of course, totally blown away by your background story of Kathy & Pete.  I don't have to tell you what exceptional people they are.  It sounds like, because of Pete's job, they have moved back to Madison.  One last question: who are the two people whose photo has replaced the white Standard poodle?  Steve, relative to the moustache question: you have learned well from your conservative teachers, grasshopper - if the answer is uncomfortable, do not answer the question directly, but deflect & put the onus on the questioner.  I promise I will stop asking about the moustaches.  This is the 3rd time I've posted today - never done that before - I think there's something wrong with me.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Random acts of kindness are fundamental to becoming who we can be - they encourage us to move beyond the transactional nature of our world and to develop the kinder side of our nature.  We won't live long enough for random acts of kindness to bring health to our country and gun safety to our communities. 

Paul Richard Hain

Stewart,

There are so many hurdles to jump involving medical ethics, that I was somewhat hardened to yet another potential "deal breaker" when they told me that finding a willing donor might be undone by her seperate medical team trying to talk her out of it.  Other conditions they told me about finding a living donor included: there can be no direct or indirect compensation by me or my representative to her or her representative.  Also, a stranger could not be a donor.  They had to be a family member or a friend of mine or my family's. (They interview the candidate, and if there is not a match about relationship, the hospital will not test the person).  The hospital also goes through a scary list of surgical related risks that are quite broad.  I was told about all these disqualifiers.  
By that time, I was so sick that my reaction was dull, resigned to whatever happened would happen.  So many health complications from PSC were mounting up on me that I really had no reaction to more bad news. . . Only faith and a fading hope.

Living donor surgeries where exhaustively tested on fetal pigs and cadavers.  HHS and UNOS would not approve the procedure until it was perfected.  Northwestern Memorial Hospital where our surgeries were done has top-shelf surgeons and hepatologists that were involved in perfecting the procedure.  Kathy's surgeon, Dr. Baker, developed the "small incision" technique done on Kathy.  Dr. Baker has very small hands.  The normal removal of the part of the liver routinely involved a 10-inch incision with the risk of a large blood loss.  She developed a process involving a 5-inch incision into which she would squeeze her hands and a cauterizing scalpel she helped invent.  With the help of orthoscopes, MRI, UltrtaSound and CT Scan data, she rolled the liver incision point as close as possible to the small incision and then dissected the piece, cauterizing the remaining side as the procedure took place.  There was very little blood loss to Kathy.  This method also heals quicker than the standard method.

We were told of the death of the donor in Colorado when Dr. Baker was talking to both of us outside the operating room.  The shock and fear that produced would be more than enough to cause people with less resolve to call it quits.  Dr. Baker said UNOS/HHS were satisfied that the procedure was safe, but that nothing is perfect in medical science.  Kathy never blinked. I felt like circumstance had brought both of us to this moment and that we had to proceed.  I knew if something went wrong with me, I would go to sleep and never wake up.  I did not fear that.  I feared going to sleep and waking up to find out something did not go right with Kathy.

The new picture is of my grand daughter, Luci and my daughter Heather.  You know Heather's role.  Luci was just 18 months old at the time of surgery sitting with our families in the waiting room to learn the outcomes.  Of course, they were all good.

Stewart Myrent

​Paul, thanks again for another informative post.  I am starting to realize that I, and probably most people, know next to nothing about the whole organ donor process.  The donor can not be a stranger?  I am sure there's some ethical dilemma involved with that part of the process, but I'm not sure I understand why, unless they're assuming that a stranger's motivation could only be financial, which you already pointed out, is a no-no.  And thanks for telling me (us) about Heather & Luci.  I'm guessing Luci must be about 8 1/2 now.  My, how time flies when you're having fun.  Steve, obviously, things are getting stranger, but I have a feeling that it's not nearly as crazy as it's going to get.  (And I mean REAL soon.)  Relative to you not thinking you'd ever agree with Ann Coulter, about anything, in this case she made it really easy for you.  (Which is why I don't trust her motivation for her recent comments).  The older I get, the more I believe that, anytime you think that you'll NEVER see something, all of a sudden, there is that very thing, right in front of you.  YIKES!  (I can't believe I just saw that!)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Just a 10 minute drive from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a beautiful 35 foot high wooden temple stands out among government buildings and city traffic in Coral Springs.  The towering work of art named The Temple of Time officially opened on Valentine’s Day, the one-year mark of the MSD massacre.  It’s meant to be a haven for those still grieving in the brokenhearted community.  Artist David Best, of California, built his first temple 19 years ago in Nevada.  He has since created more than a dozen temples from Nepal to Ireland.  

After some time has passed, traditionally the temples have been set ablaze in a ceremonial fire.  Though many in the MSD community wish otherwise, The Temple in memory of those slain will meet the same fate in May - the purpose of burning the temple to the ground is to cast off the pain and sorrrow.  

More than 500 volunteers, most of them local, worked together to erect the temple - since Valentine’s Day mourners have been writing messages of hope and love throughout the wooden temple.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Women have mental illness too,

yet 98% of mass shootings are committed by men -

This isn’t about mental illness,

it’s about violent men and their easy access to killing machines.

Paul Richard Hain

Stewart, yes indeed, strangers could not be donors because it was presumed money was being exchanged, a violation of the rules.  Something good happened, though. Three years ago, the hospital was being contacted by people with no affiliation to those needing an organ transplant, that remarkably want to donate an organ to help strangers!  The hospital began keeping records of those making the offer.  If the stranger did not know the recipient, there could not be an exchange of money. They began a philanthropic donor list  of volunteers.  Over the years, the list grew.  They had to be qualified physically and psychologically.  They now draw donors from the list for transplantation.

Including this program and persons who have indicated on their driver's license that they are a donor, there are 121,000 patients waiting for an organ everyday.  About 17-20 die waiting each day.

Donald Henry Kuehn

Stewart Myrent

​Don, thanks so much for the view of Trump from the other side of 'the pond'.  It was not only hilarious, but made a lot of sense, even if you are barely paying attention.  But. I feel as though MY skirts are getting dirty, just by being from the same country as you-know-who.  Please relay to the British - this is not my fault.