Organ Transplant Patients Thank Their Donors in Emotional Candle Lighting Ceremony

MAYWOOD, IL – Loyola Medicine patient Gordon Harris received a life-saving heart transplant after his donor died in a car accident. She was 17.

Double lung transplant patient Cynthia Jennrich's donor was a 14-year-old girl who died from a brain aneurysm.

Ernest Leombruni received a kidney from a man who died of a heart attack.

And liver transplant patient Donny Swenson received his organ from a man who was about his age, 59, when he died. "His gift is indescribable," Mr. Swenson said. "I would not be here without him."

The four patients spoke April 7 during Loyola's 28th annual Candle-Lighting Ceremony, an emotional event held during National Donate Life Month that honors organ donors. Patients who have received organ donations, or are waiting for transplants, lit symbolic candles in memory of and in thanksgiving for those who have given the gift of life to others by donating organs. Family members of two organ donors also spoke.

The organ recipients described how their transplants saved and transformed their lives.

Mr. Harris said that before his transplant, he suffered severe fatigue and shortness of breath from heart failure. "Now I can ride my bike and swim with my grandchildren," he said. Mr. Harris, 68, a retired correctional officer, lives in Sterling, Illinois.

Mr. Leombruni, a retired restaurant owner who lives in Byron, Illinois, spent three years on dialysis before his kidney transplant. "I think about my donor and my special gift every day," he said. "There is no way to thank him other than to say I'm going to take care of his kidney."

Mr. Swenson, 59, is a retired cement finisher who lives in rural Illinois near Waterman. Before his liver transplant, Mr. Swenson was hospitalized every third day to remove three liters of fluid buildup. He was losing weight, getting weaker and did not have long to live. Now, he feels well enough to work in his one-acre yard and restore his 1937 Buick.

Ms. Jennrich, 68, of Wonder Lake, Illinois, missed the births of two grandchildren while she was sick with interstitial lung disease and bronchiectasis. "The only time I left home was to go to church or pulmonary rehab," she said.

Now Ms. Jennrich can travel again. But there are only three places she wants to go – Libertyville, Illinois, St. Louis and Minnesota, where her children and grandchildren live.

Loyola has performed more than 4,000 organ transplants, including about 600 liver transplants, more than 700 heart transplants, more than 1,900 kidney transplants and nearly 1,000 lung transplants.

Loyola is one of only three centers in Illinois that perform transplants on five major solid organs: heart, lung, kidney, liver and pancreas. Loyola also is among the few centers that perform combination transplants, including heart-lung, heart-kidney, heart-liver, liver-kidney, lung-liver and lung-kidney.