|
|
|
|
| Peter Gonzales |
|
By profession, Peter Gonzales was an X-ray technician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. Little did he know that one day he would receive a new liver at the very same hospital. Peter's liver transplant took place on August 2, 1998. He was 58-years-old at the time.
Peter's donor was 17-year-old Paul Anthony Lopez. In August 1998, Paul Anthony was killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Paul, who was enrolled to begin his studies at New York University in the fall of that year, had indicated on his driver's license his desire to be an organ donor. Faced with their only son's untimely death, his parents Celina and Jose decided to fulfill his wishes. They donated his heart, kidneys, lungs, liver and pancreas.
Celina Lopez says she decided to give the gifts of life for many reasons. "For one thing, Paul loved to help people. There was no doubt in my mind that he would have wanted this. Another reason is that my nephew is alive today because someone donated a kidney to him when he was 18years old. Also, at one point I worked with someone who was very sick and waiting for a heart. I saw how much he suffered. I was the morning supervisor when he received the call that they had a heart for him. He received his heart 13 days before Paul's tragic accident."
|
|
|
