Organ Donation

A year ago when I lost my brother I stepped up said to donate my brothers organs. I lied and said we talked about it but I knew this is just something we needed to do. It was scary to think this is a final moment and all I could think was my brother is gone but if someone could use what he has then why wouldn't I say to take them. My Uncle died 6 weeks before my brother he was sitting number 2 on the transplant list for a liver. So I know I did this but I never thought about what changes this really could have made.

At the beginning of February my Mom received a letter from the transplant organization saying they had letters and if she wanted them she had to call. It took a while for my Mom to call. I guess she got the letters last week and was afraid to read them. So we read them together today. There was four letters in total from three recipients.

The first letter was from a man who received Markus's lungs. He is a father of 5 children and was about to celebrate his 14 year of marriage. His mother was dying from cancer and she said she wouldn't go until he had a transplant. She died a week after he had a transplant. Attached to this letter was a letter from the mans wife thanking us for giving this gift. Her own father died waiting on a list.

The second letter I read was a recipient of Markus's liver. He also thanked us for changing his life and giving him this gift.

The third letter is the one that got me the most. When I saw the letter it looked like Markus's handwriting. It was scary. It was from a young man who received my brothers heart. He had recently written his letter as it was dated January 2010. He apologized for taking so long to write his letter as it was hard to express what Markus has done for him. This young man was preparing to die. He as shocked when he got the call. He was a athlete. A triathlete before he got sick and went into heart failure. He talked about how to receive such a gift was overwhelming as he knew it had to take someone to die for him to live. That this is kind of a survivors guilt so to say. He talked about how he was gonna to start a organization on talking to people about organ receiving and donation. To tell you the truth reading this letter it was like reading a letter from Markus.

I am so happy to know even through all my grief and all my sadness with losing Markus that he changed peoples lives. As I sit here and cry I think about Markus's heart beating in another mans chest that was so much like him. A Dad breathing and playing his his five kids and loving his wife. All of these letters are anonymous so I don't know them past these letters. They don't know Markus's name just that he was a Man and he had a family that loved him. So what can I say. If your reading this you need to tell people to you want to donate if anything should happen. That you need to sign your donor card. There are people that need what you have to give. Its a very hard time to lose someone you love but you can help other people who are about to lose someone they love from feeling that pain. Thank you Markus. Just for being my big brother and protector and being such a loving person.

Anyways Markus, I love you.