PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — There are more than a 100,000 people across the country in need of a lifesaving organ donation and nearly 1,500 are in Wisconsin.
April is National Donate Life month, when people are encouraged to register as organ, eye and tissue donors.
Greyson Neubauer turned four years old about a month ago. He participated in the family Easter egg hunt over the weekend and he even goes to pre-school a few days a week. But, Greyson is also sick.
“He’s hooked up to a machine for 11 or 12 hours, right now we’re doing 11 hours. Every night he’s hooked up when he goes to bed,” says his mom, Katie Rusch.
Diagnosed at just days old with Denys-Drash Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, he is stable right now after long hospitalizations and several health scares.
According to Katie Rusch, “When he was 7 months old we had his kidneys removed because they weren’t working anyway. He has been on Peritoneal Dialysis his whole life. He’s had multiple surgeries.”
A year ago, Greyson was finally approved for a kidney donation through Froedert. His family now on a mission to find a suitable, live kidney donor. They’ve started a Facebook page to help in their search. “We’re looking for someone with A or O blood type and in that 20 to 40 year old range,” says his mom.
Greyson isn’t alone in his need for an organ transplant, almost 1,500 people in Wisconsin in are in the same boat.
And while Greyson’s family is looking for a live donor, April is National Donate Life month – a time when people are encouraged to consider becoming an organ, eye and tissue donor.
Samantha Taylor is a senior donation support specialist with UW Health Organ and Tissue Donation. She says, “When somebody signs up on the Wisconsin registry to be an organ, tissue or eye donor they are making the decision on a regular day, under regular circumstances thinking how they could help others if something were to happen to them.”
It’s an opportunity to make a difference and save up to eight lives. “Already having had this filled out, having it ready for your family makes it much easier at a crisis time in your family’s life to not have to make a decision for you, to not even have to think about that stuff if you’ve already said yes to organ donation,” adds Bellin Health ICU nurse Courtney Batal.
And for recipients and their families, it’s a new lease on life. “You can touch so many lives with organ donation,” says Katie Rusch. She adds, “One person can help so many people. It’s just amazing and the effects it will have on those families and the person that’s getting the donation, it’s a gift that you can never repay.”
And one that will never be forgotten.
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