Meeting dispelled myths that only people of the same race can donate to one another while relaying an urgent appeal for more organ and tissue donors, kicking off April's National Donate Life Month

(New York, NY) Monday, March 27th 2006--Earlier today Donna Reed, a single white organ donor mother from Pittsford, New York came face to face with two of her son’s transplant recipients for the first time at the headquarters of the New York Organ Donor Network in Midtown Manhattan. In August of 2003, Donna received the worst phone call of her life. Her youngest son, Keith Neville, a successful stockbroker on Wall Street with a bright future ahead of him, was in a head-on drinking and driving related collision. The other driver survived with a broken leg; Keith did not. Devastated by the untimely death of her youngest son, Donna decided to donate Keith’s organs and tissues. She wanted his generosity and spirit to live on in others, giving them the second chance at life that he did not have.

In a double transplant on August 9, 2003, at Westchester Medical Center, Katherine Scott, a 41 year old African-American from Highland Falls, New York, received Keith’s liver and left kidney. One of six children, Katherine is married with a newborn grandson that she would not have had the opportunity to meet if it weren’t for her transplant. She has one sister and four brothers. One of her brothers is a twin. Today Katherine is healthy and back at work in the dry cleaning department at West Point Military Academy.

Keith’s heart went to 63-year-old retiree, William Sheridan. William, who received his new heart at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, is the father of three daughters, and grandfather to four. He is an active participant in an innovative program that provides art therapy to heart transplant recipients. Interestingly, Keith’s mother fondly remembers Keith’s artistic side. “Many people don’t know that he was also a creative person — he showed an interest in art when he was just two years old,” she says.

The emotional meeting this morning was followed by a question and answer session for the media, hosted by Elaine Berg, the New York Organ Donor Network’s president and CEO. “There are currently 90,000 people on the national organ transplant waiting list and close to 7,000 of them are in the Greater New York metro area. Unfortunately, there were only 261 organ donors in our region in 2005,” said Ms. Berg. She also pointed out that April is National Donate Life Month, a time when they are making an urgent appeal for more New Yorkers to sign the state’s organ and tissue donor registry. New Yorkers can do so by logging on to www.donatelifeny.org.
 

More information, contact Martin Woolf, Communications Manager, at 646-291-4460 or mwoolf@nyodn.org.

 
MEDIA COVERAGE FOR THE MARCH 27, 2006 DONOR FAMILY-RECIPIENT MEETING AT THE NEW YORK ORGAN DONOR NETWORK
The media turned out in force to cover the meeting of Donna Reed, Katherine Scott and William Sheridan.
 

THE PICTURES TELL THE STORY OF THE DRAMATIC MEETING ON MARCH 27, 2006
All Photos

“The Door Opens, and They Meet for the First Time”: Donna Reed, the mother of organ donor Keith Neville, met two of her son’s transplant recipients for the first time at the headquarters of the New York Organ Donor Network in Midtown Manhattan on Monday, March 27. Keith died in an automobile accident in 2003 at the age of 24. At the start of the emotional meeting, Elaine Berg, president and CEO of the Donor Network (in red) led Ms. Reed into the room. Behind Ms. Reed was her surviving son, Tim Neville. Also pictured (seated on the right of the photo) were Katherine Scott, Mr. Neville’s liver and kidney recipient, and William Sheridan, who received Keith’s heart.

For more information, contact Martin Woolf at 646-291-4460 or mwoolf@nyodn.org.