Families, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics celebrate Donate Life Month

IOWA CITY - Years ago, standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles to get his unrestricted driver's license, Jonathan Russell turned to his mom and asked, 'Am I an organ donor?”

'Yes,” Jan Russell recalls saying. 'Yes you are.”

He quipped back, 'Yeah, I don't need ‘em.”

Jan Russell said her son, who went by 'Jonno,” would be the first person to say, 'Yeah, of course they would want part of me. I'm awesome.”

But she never dreamed 'they” would get part of him so soon. A few years later - early May 10, 2015 - an 18-year-old Jonno died after the car he was driving went into a ditch and hit a utility pole and two trees.

His family members were devastated. But one thing that provided a sense of hope - or at least purpose and meaning - was the new reality that their son's life could help save others.

'We are grateful for the opportunity to make something that is so senseless as our son's death, mean something,” Jan Russell told a crowd Friday during a University of Iowa Health Care 'Gift of Life” ceremony in honor of National Donate Life Month.

The UIHC Transplant Center is Iowa's only 'comprehensive transplant program” serving both adults and children, and last year it recovered 122 organs from a record 32 organ donors. In 2014, 103 organs were recovered from 28 donors.

A total 117 organ transplants occurred at the UI Transplant Center in 2015 - 66 were from UIHC donors. And the hospital, which also performs eye and tissue transplants, reported 105 tissue donors last year and 218 cornea donors - 143 of which were identified for transplant and 75 of which went to research.

'This past year we celebrated a significant milestone in the history of transplants at UIHC by performing our 5,000th transplant since 1969,” said Ken Kates, chief executive officer for the UI Hospitals and Clinics.

More than 620 people currently are waiting for an organ in Iowa, and 123,000 are waiting nationally.

'I'm extremely confident that our organization will continue to put forth extraordinary efforts so that we can meet the needs as best we can for all of those waiting for an organ here within the state,” Kates said.

April Doggett, a UIHC nurse in the surgical and neurosciences intensive care unit, said she's walked families through both the donation and receiving process and witnessed firsthand the life-altering impact of that generosity.

'Imagine how many lives could be saved if we all signed up,” she said. 'Think of it like this - 18 people will die today. Not because they got into an accident, a shooting, or an explosion. Not because they chose to die. But 18 people will die today because they didn't get the organ transplant that they needed.”

And, for the Russell family, organ donation has given them a way to continue connecting with their son, his memory, and his legacy. Jonno was able to donate at least eight organs, according to his dad, Joel Russell.

Of the recipients, four have contacted the family anonymously. After one year - if both donor families and recipients agree - the Iowa Donor Network can facilitate more direct and personal communication.

'It's great that we understand the status of Jonno's organs, and we look forward to the year being up when we get some identities,” Joel Russell said. 'We will find out if there's going to be some interactions between us.”

The family already knows one recipient - a student at Brown Mackie College in the Quad Cities, where Jan Russell works. Russell had met just six weeks earlier with the student, who had wanted to warn her instructors and superiors that she might have to take off at a moment's notice, should a new kidney become available.

So when Jan Russell was asked, after her son's death, whether she knew anyone in need of an organ, 'This feeling of shock overcame me.”

'I said yes - oh my gosh yes,” she said. 'We found out later that she was a match.”

After Russell and the student returned to the college, they avoided each other for months.

'I was still grieving,” she said. 'But since then, and I can't even tell you what the breakthrough was, we were able to talk.”

One of the first questions Russell asked her, 'Do you ever feel like you need to drink gallons of Coca-Cola?”

No, the student said. Not really, actually. But, Russell said, that's been one of the enlightening and empowering lessons of organ donation.

'While I know that my son is the person that made it possible for her to get off of dialysis and to resume her life … I don't see Jonathan when I look at her,” she said.

Rather, Russell said, she simply sees the student, who she described as an amazing mother.

'So I am forever grateful for organ donation,” she said.

Joel Russell seconded that notion.

'Yes, we wanted him for 100 years, but we only got him for 18,” he said. 'But those people are alive because of Jonno. We never wanted to give him away, but we had to. And since we gave him away, we're glad that we could make a difference in people's lives.”