I had a heartransplant in 1994 I want to know how to go about meeting my donor family to thank them.?

Question

I really want to thank the family that saved my life with there son organ. if there is anyone who donated a heart to newark beth isreal in 1994 you might be that family i want to thank.

Answer 1

What you have to do is write your letter and contact your local OPO, the organ recovery agency which is the organization that handles everythign to do with donation and transplantation.

They will contact the family and ask if they would like to receive the letter. Make sure to mention to the person at the OPO that you would like to meet the family, and would like to know if they feel the same way.

If the family accepts the letter, maybe you will get one back, and maybe after an exchange, they will want to meet you.

Some families really are not able to handle meeting the recipient - sometimes some family members did not agree with their loved one's decision to be a donor, but simply respected their wishes to donate. Other times, families are still grieving.

I think one fabulous thing you can do to show your gratitude is to volunteer for your local OPO to talk to people about becoming donors. You can go to community events or talk to groups, and teach them the facts about donation, and the wonderful gift of life that you received.

You might even find a donor family who will adopt you as their recipient.

Answer 2

you can either write the hospital but because of hipaa you maynot get that far, my suggestion is write the the organization who did the organ harvesting and usually they pass on the letters but i am not sure if they pass on the family info again because of hipaa

Answer 3

the only thing i could tell you is that you should beable to get the info from the hospital about the donor. hope you find the donor to think them. that is what i would want to do.