Advanced Search
Current and Breaking News for Professionals, Consumers and Media




News : National Author: Staff Editor Last Updated: Feb 20, 2018 - 12:53:24 PM



Co-Worker's Death Inspires Woman to Save Another

By Staff Editor
Feb 20, 2018 - 12:48:32 PM



Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List icon Sign up for our Ezine
For Email Marketing you can trust


Email this article
 Printer friendly page

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Christine Graf knelt on the floor and began performing chest compressions on a young man who had suffered a heart attack and collapsed. She knew the routine well, having received years of training through her work as an EMT with a fire department in suburban Chicago. But that was in the past. Christine had retired from the fire department and was now working at a factory. And the man on the floor wasn't a stranger she'd been called on to care for. It was a colleague. In spite of her training, Christine was unable to save him. "His death broke my heart," she tells the Daily Mail.

Christine was devastated — and motivated. So she "helped get a first-aid room built at her workplace," reports the NWI Times, and trained "30 of her co-workers in CPR." But that wasn't enough for Christine. She knew her colleague had kidney disease and that it had an impact on his health. So she decided to do for someone else what she hadn't been able to do for him. "I just came to the conclusion that I could save a life by donating" a kidney, she tells the Daily Mail. "I just wanted to be able to give back something after losing him."

The act of generosity was not out of character. "Christine puts others before herself," husband Eric tells the NWI Times. "It's a wonderful thing she's doing. The family and I are very proud."

Before Christine could donate, she underwent six months of "health checks, blood work and waiting," according to WGN-9 Chicago. Then she received a call that a compatible recipient had been found. She headed to Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus, where doctors removed one of her kidneys. It was sent to Florida and transplanted into a woman who had been on the transplant list for eight years. "I was just overjoyed and blessed that I was able to give somebody the gift of life," Christine tells WGN-9.

And while that's certainly a happy ending, it's not the end of this story. Christine's donation started a living-donor organ transplant chain. An organ donation chain begins when a donor gives to a stranger who also has a willing but incompatible donor. That person then gives to another stranger, and so on. "So far my original donation has encouraged a chain of 12 kidney donations in total, which makes me proud," Christine tells the Daily Mail.

Christine hopes that by sharing her story, others will be motivated to become donors themselves. "There are so many people in need," she says. Thanks to her generous act in honor of her co-worker, there are now 12 fewer. "It feels right that 12 lives have been saved because of him," she tells the Daily Mail.

You can learn more about living-donor transplantation here. Then donate a comment to the In the Loop blog, where you'll find tools to share this storywith others.

###



Top of Page

HealthNewsDigest.com

National
Latest Headlines


+ Adolescent Females Were Especially Vulnerable to Mental Health Impact of Pandemic-Related School Closings
+ Alarming Prevalence of Smell, Taste Loss During COVID’s Delta Surge
+ Correct Posture in Real Time with the Help of Machine Learning
+ Get a COVID-19 Booster
+ What’s In The Water?
+ Harmless Cells Turn Into Ruthless Trained Killers
+ Stress Also Among Wild Life
+ Silk Improves Function of Masks
+ Drug That Lowers Blood Sugar Also Reduces Blood Vessel Dysfunction
+ Gastritis: Its Symptoms



Contact Us | Job Listings | Help | Site Map | About Us
Advertising Information | HND Press Release | Submit Information | Disclaimer

Site hosted by Sanchez Productions