Be Like Jennifer; Save a Life
By Cliff Yankovich || Contributing writer
6/26/2024
Once upon a time, Jennifer Dougherty was born. In the same year, Heather Gray was born. Jennifer cruised through life in Alto; she attended Alto Elementary and was co-valedictorian of her class, when she graduated in 1992. Jennifer was healthy and took inspiration from her family when it came to the important subject of donating blood. Her grandfather, parents, cousins and siblings are regular blood donors. Her dad has donated 19 gallons of blood, but the thought of it bothered Jennifer, and she did not carry on the family tradition, at first.
Her son was born in 2010 with a congenital heart defect that required open heart surgery when he was just two days old. Her son needed a total of four surgeries, prior to going home, and the little man required a lot of blood units. In December of that year, Jennifer rolled up her sleeve and participated in a blood donation contest between the fire departments of Alto, Caledonia, and Cascade. “Blood donation wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it was and I had a lot of blood donations to pay forward,“ Jennifer recalled. “I have been donating ever since and am up to around 8 gallons of blood.”
Heather was not as healthy as Jennifer. She was born with a rare liver disorder called Alagille Syndrome, which causes the bile ducts to be very narrow and difficult to drain. As a result, Heather found herself in need of a liver transplant when she was 40 years old, in 2013, because her liver went downhill fast. She found herself as a someone with a formerly compromised liver, to suddenly being at the top of the transplant list. Sometimes, parts of liver can be grown from a donated one, but the U of M Transplant Center made work of finding Heather a complete liver from a donor. Yes, this was good news, but as Heather explains, getting a new liver was not the end of her health battles.
“Ever since my liver transplant in 2013, my kidneys took a hit. Both the liver failure, and then the post-transplant immunosuppression medications, were hard on my kidneys”, Heather explained. “The transplant team originally thought my kidneys would bounce back after the liver transplant, but they didn’t. Instead, they slowly declined between 2013-2020.”
In 2019, her nephrologist recommended that Heather get evaluated for a kidney transplant. She was approved and placed on the kidney transplant list. In June 2020, the Transplant Center recommended that she look for a living donor because the wait list for a deceased donor of her blood type (0) was 5-7 years. Time for Jennifer to step up and shine. When she got word that Heather needed something she had two of, in her mind, it was a done deal. They had never met, but when she realized that Heather was someone of her own age with similar goals and dreams, Jennifer wanted very much for a similarly-aged lady to have one of her kidneys. It took until fairly recently, but Heather is now moving full steam ahead, thanks to a fully functioning kidney from Jennifer.
Heather recalled how they met, “I put out a social post, looking for a living donor, and that post eventually reached Jen Dougherty. She was evaluated and approved in November 2020. Since my kidney function fluctuated between 15-19 percent, the Transplant Center wanted to hold-off on the transplant, until my kidney function was below 15 percent for three consecutive months. But that just didn’t happen. So Jen and I were in limbo. Then I got COVID-19 in February 2022, and had to be hospitalized, due to the nuances of being a transplant patient. During my hospitalization, they flooded me with fluids and my kidneys temporarily bumped up to 30 percent function, which made me ineligible for transplant. A patient has to have 20 percent or lower function to quality. The 30 percent bump only lasted a couple of months and then my kidneys started to decline again. Both Jen and I had to go through the whole kidney evaluation process again. It took almost an entire year for me, and then Jennifer, to get approved again due to scheduling the various tests. For me, those tests were a heart catheterization, heart MRI, follow-up with my cardiologist, mammogram, and skin cancer screening. Once Jen was approved, the Transplant Center scheduled our surgeries.
“When I found out that Heather needed a kidney, I knew that one of her children was the same age as one of my kids. Over time, I found out that all of her children were in the same grades as ours,” Jennifer recalled. ”Heather and I were both born the same year. She is active in the community. We are so similar, but I was fortunate to have great health and she has had to battle health issues. It is not fair. I am sure that she wants to watch her kids become adults, wants to be a grandma and wants to be able to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary, as much as I do. I couldn’t be happier that I had the opportunity to share a kidney with a good person that makes the world a better place. Plus, I get to make my favorite mom joke; donating to Heather was like the LKQ Pick Your Parts – she needed a kidney and I had one to spare that is the same model year.”
Heather Gray
While there is much to celebrate in the life-saving gift that has created a friendship, both ladies wanted me to mention that the demand for blood is ongoing and has gotten worse since COVID. The Red Cross website informs us that someone needs blood, somewhere in the U.S. every two seconds. Read that again and someone else is waiting for blood. In the past four years, new and returning donors are down by about 80,000 people per year.
There is a lot of misconceptions about donating blood. Many people think having some ink on their body, in the form of a tattoo, makes them unable to give blood. Not true. If the tattoo was given in a certified facility in Michigan, you can donate blood. Taking blood pressure medicine does not make you ineligible to donate blood nor does use of cannabis products, although some require a waiting period after the final dose to get clearance.
Full confession time – I was successfully treated for throat cancer ten years ago and have been holding on to the belief that cancer treatment ended my blood donation. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not sure who planted that seed of misinformation, but visiting www.redcross.org can provide all kinds of information for anyone wishing to help fill the void of blood donations right now. There is very little standing in our way to donating live-saving blood right now. Both ladies agree.
Jennifer told us, “The problem is, there is no substitute for human blood. The only way that people will survive accidents, surgery, cancer, etc., is if someone else steps up to donate the blood they will need. If you are healthy enough to donate and are willing to try, I would recommend finding someone that donates and ask to go with them. I guarantee you will meet some great people that are willing to give up an hour of their time to help save someone else’s life.”
Heather echoed what Jennifer said and encouraged everyone reading this article to explore blood and organ donation. We all have the ability to save a life. We can take inspiration from Jennifer’s actions, on behalf of Heather, by donating blood and/or organs. We can make a difference.
