Contacted Donor

[pgjohnson2012]

My Kidney can from a 20 year old male in Galveston who was killed in car wreck. I know I have to go through my Social Worker in order to send a letter of thanks. Has anyone tried reaching out the donor family? If so, how did they respond and if you’ve met the family in person?

[kute52]

I received my kidney and pancreas from a guy who is around the same age as my younger brother and after my transplant in November 4 2008 my family all wrote his family Christmas letters and 3 years after transplant I got to meet his Mom, Dad Sisters and Grandma. Then after the meeting his Mom e-mailed me her number and I text and e-mail her and thank their family for giving me the wonderful gift from Kyle but I tell them how much I think about Kyle and how much I love him for saving me. But I encourage you if you can reach out to your donors family if only just to meet and say thank you face to face

[pgjohnson2012 in reply to kute52]

I definitely want to meet my donor family. I have to go through my Social Worker and write a generic thank you letter. Then I have to indicate to my Social Worker that I would like to meet the family. I’m looking forward too the opportunity.

[kute52 in reply to pgjohnson2012]

I hope you get the chance like I did and you have the outcome like I did where you all are not just donor and recipient but good friends good luck hope all goes well

[WYOAnne NKF Ambassador]

The transplant center did not give me the name of my recipient. I wrote a thank you through the donor network at the center and they forwarded it to the family. Not all families are ready nor do all want to contact the recipient. My family responded right away, even sending me a picture of my 16 year old donor that was also killed in a car crash. His name was Ryan and I still think of him and the wonderful gift of life he gave me. I still hear from the family a couple times of year. My transplant was 18 years ago. And no, I never met the family. So, contact your transplant coordinator and should help you with sending a letter to the family. Good luck to you.

[pgjohnson2012]

Thank you

[Yankcg70]

I think that it can be a good thing but you must go in with eyes wide open and be prepared. I had my transplant 28 years ago. The young girl was 16, (car wreck) only 2 years younger than me. About 4-5 months after i had mine, i received a call from the transplant coordinator who asked me if I wouldnt mind if my donor's mother wrote me a letter. The reason he asked me was because she was having such a hard time dealing with her daughters death and because i was so close in age, everyone thought maybe it would help her etc. She wrote me and I wrote her back and several months later the coordinator asked if we could meet in person. We all agreed and met in a mutual location as the hospital I had my transplant at was 3 hours away. It was actually on the news and in the local papers. They were so nice. We kept in contact for a long while. Well unfortunately for my donor family it did not go so well. The husband and sister of donor have been able to get thru all of it but I talked with the sister privately about 12 years into my transplant to let tgem know my Mom had died and she told me the Mom never ever got over the death and all that followed and had a hard time dealing with it and in the process had pushed the husband and sister away. It was difficult to hear that because i felt alot of guilt that i was here and healthy but her child was not and she had basically stopped time and couldnt move on. So I just want people who choose to meet the family to realize it is not always roses and it can bring alot of emotions out. Be sure to have a close family that you can discuss these things with before and after you write or get to meet the donor family.

[pgjohnson2012]

Thank you so much for sharing. My husband and I had that conversation about a month ago.