4 UNOS Working together. Saving LiveS. UNOS 1 Working together. Saving LiveS.

Dear Richmond neighbors,For more than 25 years, our nation’s organ transplant network has been managed by UNOS, based right here in Richmond. While our lifesaving work extends to every corner of our country, we’re proud to call Richmond home.

In recent years, our local presence has grown, as we’ve been actively reaching out to the Richmond community to increase awareness of transplantation and UNOS’ central role in making it possible for thousands of people each year. Most visible is the National Donor Memorial, a 10,000-square-foot garden at UNOS headquarters, built to honor our nation’s organ and tissue donors. Just past the garden, inside our lobby, is The Gallery at UNOS, featuring stunning artwork by local artists as well as artwork created by those who have been directly touched by organ donation and transplantation. And in the fall, we hold the annual United for UNOS—a festive evening of food, wine and working together to save lives.

We encourage you to learn more about UNOS by leafing through this supplement and visiting our website www.unos.org. Better yet, stop by for a tour of the National Donor Memorial, visit The Gallery at UNOS during First Fridays, and join us for United for UNOS on October 14.

Come visit and get to know us better.

Walter K. GrahamExecutive DirectorUnited Network for Organ Sharing

UNOS FOUNDatiON PReSiDeNt’S COUNCilThese key Richmonders form the UNOS Foundation President’s Council, established in May 2009 to help increase awareness of UNOS and its lifesaving mission.

Viola Baskerville Palmer P. Garson Nadine Marsh-CarterNancy Belleman William M. Gottwald Dorothy A. PauleyRobert M. Blue David Heavenridge Wallace StettiniusDiana Cantor Marc R. Katz, M.D., M.P.H. Marilyn H. WestRichard Cullen Anne R. Lower Robert S.D. Higgins, M.D., M.S.H.A.

taBle OF CONteNtS

PubLiShed for united netWork for organ Sharing

by richmond magazine’S cuStom PubLiShing diviSon

Proceeds will fund educational programs supported by United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to increase awareness of organ donation and transplantation.

Friday October 14, 2011, 7pm– 10pmThe Gallery at UNOS: 700 N. 4th Street, Richmond, VA

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2 The Gallery at UNOS:

Debra O’Hearn’s Journey

3 UNOS Calendar of Events

4 Cover Story They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s the case, our cover photo is priceless. Heart-felt Gratitude tells the story of Karen Fetty’s son, David, who saved several lives as an organ donor including heart recipient Joe Cox.

5 Get Involved

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Sample delicious food and wine from local restaurants, caterers and vineyards while enjoying conversations with organ recipients and donor families.

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BUy yOUR tiCketS NOw aND Save!tickets $50 per person before September 30th. $75 per person through October 14th.

tickets available at www.UnitedForUNOS.org or by calling 804-782-4924.

Come visit and get to know United Network for Organ Sharing

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UNOS 3 Working together. Saving LiveS.2 UNOS Working together. Saving LiveS.

From the moment she awoke from her heart transplant, Debra O’Hearn knew what needed to be done. the answer was simple. Spread the word of her gift. “what a miracle,” she says. “i was weeks away from death, and i was handed my life back.”

O’Hearn worked as an ER nurse for 26 years, saving and helping others, when in 2004 she contracted the flu. The virus ravaged her body damaging her heart so badly that it functioned at a mere 15 percent.

After years of treatment and surgeries, the path was clear—O’Hearn needed a transplant to live. Eighteen days after being added to the national waiting list, she received a new heart. It was Easter, April 8, 2007. Every day since, O’Hearn has made good on her promise to honor her donor and educate others about organ donation. “I wanted to give back,” she says.

Photography is O’Hearn’s language of choice. She tells her story of organ donation and transplantation through the color photography exhibit, My Journey: Embracing My Life, which debuted June 4 in Florida and opens in The Gallery at UNOS November 4.

The exhibit chronicles O’Hearn’s nearly four-year life and death battle through a series of 12 photographs, starting with “Firestorm Within Me,” which captures her feelings when she was diagnosed. “It’s my journey out of my sick life into my new life,” she says.

The emotionally charged exhibit honors O’Hearn’s donor, 29-year-old Emily Compton. “The show is dedicated to her,” she says. “I feel her every day. I did from the first night I was alone in the hospital. I literally put my hand on my chest saying, ‘You are in a safe place. I will take care of you, and people will know of you.’”

O’Hearn has met Emily’s family and talks with them frequently. In fact, Emily’s grandmother recently sent O’Hearn a birthday card. O’Hearn smiles, recalling the grandmother’s words. “You got my granddaughter’s heart,” she wrote. “How can I not love you?” The love is mutual. “I had to find a way to express my feelings in images,” says O’Hearn. “I couldn’t produce the pictures in straight images.”

Her feelings culminate with the exhibit’s final heart-felt photographs including “The Gift of Life” and “I Am Me & You Are You.” The photographs are particularly meaningful because they’re the essence of O’Hearn’s donor. “Blue is Emily’s favorite color,” she says. “Her life force filled me with her power.”

My Journey: Embracing My Life opens November 4 and runs through December 31 in Richmond. “I am honored to have my work shown at The Gallery at UNOS to show other people what UNOS is about and how it has changed my life,” O’Hearn says.

My JOURNey: Embracing My L ife

‘I will take care of you, and people will know of you.’

by lisa schaffner

I Am Me & You are You

Firestorm Within Me

teSt yOUR UNOS kNOwleDge

1. United Network for Organ Sharing is a:

a) pizza restaurant

b) non-profit that runs the nation’s transplant system

2. the number of patients waiting for an organ transplant

in the United States:

a) 50,000 b) 111,000

3. an organ donor can save 8 lives.

a) true b) false

4. the 8 lifesaving organs are:

a) eyes, heart, kidneys, liver, bone marrow, and tissue

b) heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and intestines

5. lifesaving transplants take place daily in the

United States.

a) 79 b) 43

September 2 Art Opening ReceptionLand and SeaSteve Hedberg, artistThe Gallery at UNOS5pm–8pm

September 13The Power of Two movie screeningByrd Theatre2908 West Cary Street5:30 doors open, 6:00 pm movieFree and open to the public

October 7First Fridays Art Walk ReceptionWorks by Hospital Hospitality House

Transplant PatientsThe Gallery at UNOS5pm–8pm

October 143rd Annual United for UNOS7pm–10pm

November 4First Fridays Art Walk ReceptionMy Journey: Embracing My LifeDebra O’ Hearn, photographerThe Gallery at UNOS5pm–8pm

November 18Special Event to benefit UNOS Crossroads Art Center Indoor Art Walk

and Open House2016 Staples Mill Road6pm–9pm

December 1 National Tree of Life Ceremony5pm

December 2 Art Opening ReceptionScenic Virginia 2011 Award Winners YWCA, “through the eyes of a child” The Gallery at UNOS5pm–8pm

December 3Richmond Christmas Parade Featuring UNOS Float10am live coverage WTVR-TV6

January 2, 2012Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade Featuring Donate Life Float11am live coverage, check local TV listing

Debra O’Hearn, heart recipient

Answers: 1) b, 2) b, 3) a, 4) b, 5) a

UNOS CaleNDaR OF eveNtS

all events are at UNOS headquarters: 700 N. 4th Street, Richmond, va 23219 unless otherwise stated.

tHe galleRy at UNOS

UNOS 5 Working together. Saving LiveS.4 UNOS Working together. Saving LiveS.

Come visitUNOS headquarters is also home to the National Donor Memorial which honors America’s organ, eye and tissue donors. A series of symbolic rooms including The Wall of Tears, The Wall of Names, The Butterfly Garden and The Grove takes visitors through the emotional journey of the organ donation and transplantation process. Request a private tour by calling 804-782-4800 or take a self-guided tour anytime with a National Donor Memorial brochure. You can also visit www.donormemorial.org.

Be a volunteerYou can be a part of the UNOS family! Sign up to be a volunteer. You can help spread the word about UNOS, organ donation and transplantation at Richmond area events. For more information on volunteer opportunities and the next UNOS volunteer training class, contact Mandy Ames at 804-782-4861 or Mandy.Ames@unos.org.

april 11, 2010, 11:02 a.m. at lewis ginter Botanical garden. karen Fetty will remember it forever. it’s the moment she heard her son’s heart beating in another man’s chest. “i felt a mixture of sadness and joy—hard to put words around it. it was the most intense feeling.”

The 14-year-old volunteer photographer who captured the poignant moment between two strangers on film says, “It struck me that this was an extremely personal moment.” And, Abbey Stanzione reveals she almost didn’t take the picture, “I felt I was invading their personal space. But, I took it anyway—for them—so they would have something to remember that once- in-a-lifetime feeling.”

That feeling has turned into a lifetime relationship for heart recipient Joe Cox. For him, the picture is a reminder of the special day he met the woman he now considers his “second” mom. But the meeting wasn’t easy. The 30-year-old admits he was nervous to chat with Fetty. She’d lost her 24-year-old son David just five months earlier to a brain aneurysm. But Cox’s trepidation melted with a handshake and a hug. “After the first time we met at Lewis Ginter, I invited her to a Mother’s Day cookout! Honestly she is just like my mom. She is my mother.”

David and his four siblings learned about organ donation at an early age. His mother, a Caroline County middle school teacher, discussed it often. “When the kids were small, I first talked about being an organ donor when a church member had a heart transplant. I told them how they should become donors, how I’d hate to lose them, but it doesn’t seem right to bury organs that can be used to save a life.” When David was removed from life support in 2009, Fetty says there was no hesitation about the next step. She wanted to know if his organs could be used to save a life.

David saved four lives. Cox received his heart. Three other recipients received his liver and both kidneys. Fetty would like to know all of them. “I have written letters to all of his recipients, and I have plans to meet the kidney recipients.”

In June, Fetty visited the National Donor Memorial which honors organ, tissue and eye donors and their families. Seeing David’s name etched on the wall brought tears to Fetty’s eyes. “I felt a connection to him,” she says. “I love the water, the Wall of Tears, the Wall of Names. It reflects the whole journey.” It’s a journey that continues. Fetty’s visit to the memorial sparked a renewed passion to share her family’s experience which she started at www.CaringBridge.org/visit/davidfetty and www.karenfetty.blogspot.com.

David Fetty had a big heart—both figuratively and physically. His mother describes him as a large, tall guy—the perfect match for Joe Cox. She also describes a young man who lived life on his own terms. “David taught me when he was very young that I had no control over him. He treated me with love and affection, but he didn’t listen all the time.” But there’s no question David Fetty heard one conversation loud and clear—the decision to be an organ donor. “It’s comforting to know the decision David made. He continues to live, and his life continues to give. That comforts me.”

Register to Save lifeSign up to be an organ donor. Visit www.DonateLifeVirginia.org to sign up, or when you renew your Virginia driver’s license, check the YES box asking you to become an organ donor. One donor can save 8 lives and enhance up to 50 more.

The man of few words gushes over his new family, and they over him. As Fetty explains, “He’s very aware of what it’s like to lose someone. He lost his brother in a car accident, and he knows the pain we’re going through. He texted me the other night and wanted to know how I’m doing.”

The picture of Cox and Fetty emotionally tugs at all who see it. Hundreds viewed it during an international transplantation conference in London, and it was part of a photography exhibition at The Gallery at UNOS last winter. The teenage photographer, who volunteers with Richmond transplant organizations, admits, “Now that I look back, I’m glad I took it. I hope it reminds Karen and Joe of the feelings they felt that day.” Stanzione also hopes the picture is a reminder to everyone that one donor can save eight lives.

Cox’s lifesaving heart transplant has had ripple effects. It prompted many of his friends to sign up to be organ donors. For Fetty, the transplant means there’s good to come out of such horrible loss. “David’s life goes on in a way. His heart, his kidneys, and his liver allow others to live on.”

And Fetty makes one point perfectly clear. The decision to give was his. “I wrote a letter to all of his recipients telling them it was David’s gift. Not mine. “

(Opposite page) Experiencing the National Donor Memorial for the first time, Karen Fetty touches the name of her son, David Ray Fetty, who died of a brain aneurysm November 14, 2009. She said the decision to donate was his. David saved 4 lives.

(Center) Recipient Joe Cox admits he was nervous to chat with Fetty, the mother of his heart donor, but Cox’s trepidation melted with a handshake and a hug.

(Above) Karen reunited with photographer Abbey Stanzione, who captured on film the first time she met her son’s heart recipient, Joe Cox.

get iNvOlveDCOveR StORy

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) runs the nation’s transplant system, matching lifesaving organs from deceased donors to patients on the national waiting list.

These matches happen 24/7 through our headquarters in downtown Richmond. 79 lifesaving organ transplants take place daily in this country.

www.UNOS.ORg

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