Patricia K. ("Patricia") Perry

Husband Don, a police sergeant for the Cook County Forest Preserve District, became an organ and tissue donor after suffering stroke during the heat wave of 1995; his kidney recipient was able to marry and have a child after transplant; Pat volunteers with Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, Illinois' organ procurement organization.

Pat's Story

In 1995, my Don, a 58-year-old police sergeant for the local Forest Preserve District, died of a hemorrhagic stroke. During the massive heat wave that struck Chicago during that period, he had been working and chasing perpetrators. He came home, went to bed and awoke at 2am complaining of numbness in his arm. He agreed that he needed to go to the hospital. Within five hours of our arrival, he was unconscious.

Arrangements were made to have my son, an active duty Marine, and his family flown home. My daughter came as well. For four days we prayed as the staff tried everything possible to save him.

On the third day we informed the staff that we wanted to donate anything and everything they could use in terms of organs, tissue and bone. The staff and doctors were extremely supportive of our request. In fact, one of the most touching acts was by Don's nurse, Donna. She arranged for him to be moved from the main ICU to a private room in the area. When he was moved, they also rearranged the room so that the bed was facing the window. Donna explained that no one knew what would happen in a case such as this, but on the chance that he would have a moment of consciousness, since he worked outside, she thought his last sight should be the trees and sky.

Over 400 people, not counting police dogs, attended Don's visitation and no one knew he was a donor, unless we told them. His funeral cortege stretched over a mile and the services at the cemetary included police on horseback, military honors by the Marine Corps, and bagpipes from the police society.

As time went by I received messages from the Regional Organ Bank of Illinois (now Gift of Hope), one of which included an invitation to become a volunteer, which I have been doing ever since. Over the course of several years I have received a message from each of his major organ recipients. The most touching were from a young lady who received his kidney, was able to marry and wrote to tell me of the birth of her child, as well as a mother who wrote that her son, then 18, had just graduated high school and would be attending college. To me, these typify the motto, "Life Goes On."

My family, including my son (still a Marine and currently serving in Iraq), my daughter and I are ever thankful for our decision to donate as while we mourn Don, we know that his death continued his life of service to others.