In the world of organ donations, there are those that give by paying the ultimate price and those who receive the greatest gift of a new life.
Through the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), which has helped to provide renewed health to more than 300,000 people with organ, tissue and corneal donations and transplants since its inception in 1977, two stories show both sides of organ donation and transplantation.
At the age of 24, Robbie Hyman of Fairchance, originally from Irwin, was killed in an accident on Route 119 in Bullskin Township in March while he was stopped at a traffic light.
Before that fatal accident, Robbie was watching the movie "John Q," the story of a desperate man taking a hospital hostage because his son couldn't get on an organ donor list.
The film moved Robbie, says mother Karen Hyman. Before that, neither she, her husband or Robbie were organ donors nor did they give any thought about organ donation.
Robbie was a construction worker; he kept busy with part-time jobs whenever he wasn't working construction and enjoyed snowboarding, skiing and working on vehicles for auto shows.
Hyman says her only son was also a loving and caring person with a love for life. So it wasn't surprising he felt something for the characters in "John Q."
Six weeks after watching that film with Robbie, Hyman had to make the hardest decision of her life. She was given the option on what to do with Robbie's organs after the fatal accident.
Hyman remembered Robbie's feelings towards the characters of the film. She thought about what her son would do for those characters if he had the opportunity.
The decision to donate Robbie's organs was the hardest Hyman and her husband ever had to make and a decision they hope never to have to make again.
Hyman's choice to donate Robbie's organs was a selfish one, she says. She now knows a part of her son is still out there and alive.
Because there was so much trauma to his chest, Robbie's heart and lungs could not be used. Hyman wished Robbie's heart could have been transplanted because she said it was filled with so much love.
But the Hymans know there are people out there whose lives have been saved. They received an update from CORE, informing them whom Robbie's organs helped save.
Robbie's left kidney went to a 44-year-old Pennsylvania woman suffering from an illness; his right kidney went to a California man previously on dialysis treatment; his liver was given to a 32-year-old Washington D.C. man and his pancreas was received by a 46-year-old married man with diabetes.
Hyman says she questions herself if she made the right decision, but then remembers "John Q's" affect on her son. She realizes that God may have had a hand in her choice.
"Why not give somebody else a chance to live?" says Hyman.
A Uniontown man received his second chance with a successful heart transplant five years ago, and he's trying to give something back as well.
Joe Smith had a heart condition so severe he had to be carried out of church on a stretcher the day of his son's wedding.
When Smith first fell ill, doctors thought he suffered from a persistent sinus infection. He was in so much discomfort with difficulty breathing that he had to sleep sitting up.
For two years, Smith was on medication for his heart condition until a doctor told him the medication wasn't doing him any good and would have to be admitted to a hospital to wait for a heart transplant. After two weeks in the hospital, Smith had a stroke and was taken off of the list for eight weeks until he recovered.
When a first heart was found, it was later determined to be incompatible for Smith.
"You have to have faith," said Smith, who, when hearing for the second time that a possible heart for transplantation was found, knew it would be the correct match. It was.
After Smith found out about the match, a nurse asked him if he wanted to take a pill to calm down. He took the medication and began to recite the Rosary. He said he instantly felt better.
Smith recovered from his transplant with no rejections and was able to get back to full-time work for Gannett Fleming, traveling to project sites to oversee projects for the company's clients.
"It feels like having a new life," says Smith, who's alive today to see his two grandchildren, see one daughter graduate and walk the other daughter down the isle.
When it came to thanking somebody for his gift, Smith wanted to contact the donor's family, but the only thing he's allowed to know about the donor is it was an out-of-state 14-year-old.
Smith was, however, allowed to send a letter to the donor's family. But the family wouldn't know Smith's identity. Only they could decide if they wanted to reply to the initial letter. So far, there has been no response, said Smith.
Hyman says her and her husband would respond to a thank-you letter from any of their son's recipients and would like to eventually meet those recipients, which is facilitated by CORE.
After 10 days of a transplant, says Pat Kornic, CORE's vice president of corporate development, the donor family receives a letter like the one sent the Hymans, stating how the donations saved somebody's life.
From six months to a year, letters between donor's families and recipients are sent anonymously by CORE until both parties agree they want to meet each other.
From day one of Smith's transplant, he said that if he could give anything back in a way to thank those responsible for him still being alive, he would. It was suggested he do volunteer work.
Of CORE's 200 active volunteers, a majority of them are either recipients or donor family members.
Kornic says CORE sets up the presentations, provides the volunteers with information about organ donation, accompanies a volunteer depending on the volunteer's age and allows the volunteer a chance to tell their story.
Smith says he volunteers with CORE whenever he has a chance, which varies on the need from two presentations in six weeks to one in six months.
"When they call, I get involved," says Smith, who speaks at schools, organizations and clubs.
"Joe's one of our best volunteers," says Kornic, adding that volunteers travel no further than an hour from their homes and that the number of times a volunteer is asked to head out varies in accordance to the needs of the nearby community.
Smith says if his volunteer efforts adds one organ donor on a driver's license, he'll be happy.
For more information on organ donation contact CORE at 1-800-366-6777 or visit their web site at www.core.org
