Quilters Share A Love of Life

When Donna Stout went to the doctor back in 2007, she had no reason to think she was seriously ill.

She had been tired a lot, but who isn’t these days. When she went to the doctor she was told she needed tests done on her heart.

Before she could have the tests done she began to feel worse and went to the emergency room of her local hospital. She was later airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center.

Stout learned her heart was failing and she needed a heart transplant. The Batavia resident was kept on an intra-aortic balloon pump for almost a month. Two days after Thanksgiving she received a transplant.

Like many transplant recipients, Stout never learned anything about the person who helped save her life. Although she did take steps to communicate with the donor’s family, she never received a response.

A new project will allow Stout and other transplant recipients to honor the memory of their donors. The Naperville-based Organ Transplant Support group is spearheading a project that will allow recipients to add panels to a quilt that honors donors.

“How do you say thanks for saving my life?” Stout said. “The quilt is just an expression of I’m just thankful I have a new day every day. Hopefully, one day, maybe we (the donor’s family) will talk; we will meet.

"I don’t know. It’s just a little bit of a symbol to honor our donor and a way for the recipients to show the world: Hey, thank you for giving us a second chance at life.”

The Organ Transplant Support group recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, said Colette Jordan, a member of the group’s board of directors and its communications secretary. The group has more than 1,400 members in Illinois and Indiana—all organ transplant recipients.

As a group, it is always looking for ways to honor donors, Jordan said. There are a few quilts that were started by donors, such as the National Kidney Foundation donor family quilt. Jordan thought that making the quilt would be a good way for transplant recipients to honor donors.

“They all have been saved by heroes--the organ donors and their families at the time of their death,” Jordan said. “There are some living donors. The majority of us are recipients of an anonymous gift.”

Jordan, a Lisle resident, was 46 when, four years ago, she went to the doctor feeling tired. She learned she was in end stage liver disease.

After fighting to get on the list for a transplant, Jordan received a liver. She learned later that her donor had helped save five people’s lives.

“So, out of tragedy is this rebirth,” she said. “Waking up after being sick and having this second opportunity, and [the opportunity] to watch my son get married and my grandson be born.”

Jordan is one of the rare transplant recipients who was able to get to know her donor family. She sent letters for 18 months before receiving a response, she said. Now, her family spends time with the donor family. She is thankful for the connection.

Jordan’s birthday is Feb. 25, but she also celebrates the day she received her transplant, Nov. 1, which she celebrates as her day of rebirth.

“Over 110,000 people are waiting right now that will die without those organs,” Jordan said. “A lot of our purpose is to show awareness of the need and to show our appreciation for the gift. This is a tangible way to show our appreciation for the gift.”

A group met a few weeks ago to begin the work on the quilt. About 35 people have signed on to participate, enough to get the first panel done, Jordan said. Her hope is that it becomes a national project.

The panels vary. Jordan’s uses artwork designed by her donor’s family and includes his photo. Many of the participants don’t know anything about the donor so they may just use the date of the transplant or, as in Donna Stout’s a photo of a sunrise, and a thank you for the new day.

Stout said she is thankful for the little things now, taking a walk with her dog or enjoying the sunshine.

But, Stout said many people wait for organs, often dying before they are able to receive a transplant.

Her message: “Just please, please, please sign up to be an organ donor. There is such a great need.”

To learn more about the quilt or to participate visit the nonprofit’s website www.otsfriends.org. E-mail the group at organtransplantsupport@gmail.com or call the office (630) 527-8640. Find the group on Facebook.