Around Easter of 2009,
David Fraser and his family had just arrived at the beach for vacation when he had a seizure while unpacking the car. He was rushed to the hospital, and was soon transported to a larger hospital in Orlando, where he stayed for nearly a week. For the next few months, numerous tests and procedures were done until doctors discovered David was suffering from liver disease. Doctors told him a liver transplant was essential to his survival. Thankfully, he received his lifesaving transplant earlier this month and is recovering well.
This hardworking man has a positive attitude and sees no point in focusing on the negative things in life. Even throughout multiple hospitalizations, he has remained optimistic. His personal motto is, "What possible benefit can I get from having a bad or sour attitude?"
David and his wife, Vickie, have three children who hate seeing their dad so sick. His young son still says, "Daddy, don't pick up the black suitcase!" because that is the last memory he has before seeing his dad suffer from a seizure. David loves to spend time outdoors, golf, attend sporting events and play with his children, but his health has prevented him from enjoying his favorite activities very often. Before becoming ill, he spent countless hours volunteering for local charities and planning fundraisers for organizations such as the American Red Cross and Huntington's Disease Society of America. Now, he simply looks forward to resuming a normal life without feeling exhausted all the time.
A liver transplant costs approximately $500,000. And that's only the beginning. Even with health insurance, David faces significant medical expenses related to his transplant. For the rest of his life, he will need follow-up care and daily anti-rejection medications. The cost of post-transplant medications can range from $2,000 to $5,000 per month--and they are as critical to his survival as the transplant itself.
To read more about David or to make a donation to NFT in his honor,
visit his web bio.
The following article is from the August 23, 2010 edition of People magazine.Anh Reiss was headed to the gym in February 2009 when she got the call that changed her life. Test results held unimaginable news: She had a rare blood disorder and perhaps only six months to live. Her only hope, her doctor told her, was a bone marrow transplant that could restore her ravaged immune system. But Reiss learned to her dismay that she had a far slimmer chance than many Americans of finding a suitable donor.
Although there are more than 8 million potential donors on the national Be the Match Registry, Reiss' search yielded only 15,000 of Vietnamese descent--whose genetic makeup was most similar to her own--and none was a match. The mother of two despaired. "The thought of leaving my family was overwhelming," says Reiss, who is herself an ob-gyn. "I cried a lot."
But rather than give up, Reiss took action. She and husband Josh, 42, a lawyer, began crisscrossing the Midwest and showing up at Vietnamese festivals to break down cultural barriers against becoming a donor. Allaying fears, sharing her story and swabbing cheeks herself, she has helped add as many as 10,000 Vietnamese donors to the registry. "There's no telling how many lives she's saved," says Mary Halet, director of recruitment for
Be the Match.
Reiss--who came to this country at age 7 as part of the wave of Vietnamese "boat people" in the 1970s--noticed she was feeling weak on a vacation last year. The lifelong runner was shocked to learn she had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a life-threatening disorder that usually strikes older people. "I've never smoked, I eat right. There's a 'Why me?' component in this." More grim news: None of her five siblings was a match; she'll need an unrelated donor.
Rather than dwelling on her bad luck, Reiss is thrilled she may have been able to help people like Matthew Nguyen, 28, a pharmacy student from San Francisco diagnosed with leukemia in 2007. On dialysis, he finally found a match in early 2009, shortly after one of Reiss' drives, and is in remission. "I owe Anh gratitude," he says, "that I can never repay."
Although Reiss has yet to find her own lifesaving match, she controls her condition through medication--she's back to practicing medicine full time and works out four days a week--and treasures every moment with Josh and children Alexandra, 19, and Aaron, 15. "No one is guaranteed more time, "she says. "Whatever time I have, I'm going to make the most of it."
By: Steve Helling in Houston and Jennifer Wren in New York.
Comment by Marie-Agnes Cederborg on September 1, 2009 at 9:34am 
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