Father’s gift
of life keeps giving
Chelsea
Knoell comes from a tight-knit family in Iowa. She stuck close to home even
after high school graduation to be near her family. She and her mom both worked
in the same hospital; Chelsea as a pharmacy technician, her mom as an administrative
secretary. Her parents divorced, but remained friends.
Her last memories of her 47 year-old father are from a Halloween party she
attended with her parents. She remembers thinking that her dad looked tired
and wasn't quite his usual out-going self.
The terrible shock came early the next day when her father was rushed to the
hospital, after experiencing an aneurysm, where he was declared brain dead.
Because her parents were divorced, Chelsea, as the oldest child was the legal
"next of kin." She was approached by the attending nurse about donation.
Early in childhood, with the guidance of her parents, Chelsea had made the
decision to sign-up to be an organ donor, so it was not difficult for her
to choose that path for her father. As her family waited in the hospital,
they were told each time a suitable recipient had been found for each of her
father's organs. The entire donation process helped them through the difficult
time.
As Chelsea struggled to find impetus for her own young life after her father's
death, she realized that she needed to get on with life – it was "a
real kick in the butt", she says.
That "kick" led her to Denver, where she is now enjoying life, and
her job as a pharmacy technician at the University of Colorado Hospital’s
Anschutz Cancer Pavilion. She will never forget that her father's donation
gave her a new life, as it did to the recipients who received his "gifts
of life."
More than 85,000 people in the United States are waiting for life-saving transplants,
and of these, more than 1,400 are Coloradans. While these numbers continue
to grow, an average of 16 people die every day waiting for transplantation.
The need for organ and tissue donation is urgent.
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