Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Cincinnati Post Living
Online friends eased blow of crisis
Life after 50 column by Alice Hornbaker
Malign Computers if you wish. but I have proff that they can be friend, comforter, even father confessor to mature adults in need.
Every day newspapers carry stories of desperate men, women and children who await donor organs to stay alive. but never is the message more poignant and personal than when there is a friend in need.
Helen and George Kramer live in Owensboro, Ky., but for decades before that they lived in Cincinnati. Helen literally moved into Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical Center and it's Guest Inn in September to be with their eldest son, Don Johnson, after he was flown there to receive a liver transplant.
This crisis in her own family openend Helen's eyes, she said, to the nation's critical need for donors, as well as her own. Don got his liver transplant, but the aftermath didn't go well. He had a heart attack, a stroke and infections that put him into a three-week coma. Now he faces an uphill recovery, perhaps mentally diminished.
Helen's borrowed computer (and the people it brought her in
touch with) comforted her. She e-mailed: "The night I came into the senior chat room at least 50 people asked about Don. One man from Michigan, on voice, started to sing a religious song for me and Don. something happened that no one has ever seen before. All listened to the song and prayed.
"Now, (chat roomers) flood the hospital with cards, coming from
far away to take me to dinner. To buy me food. To make special dishes to eat here in the hotel.
"There's no way to explain this new experience."
Nashville residents and chat roomers actually went to visit Helen. Imagine that. who said computer folk have no heart?
Of her ordeal, now going into its third month, Helen said: "I have seen many miracles and have the stories that would blow your mind. so why don't people give their organs? Now I have a goal, no matter what the outcome here, to share with others the need and wonderful results of organ transplants.
Remember, with every tragedy comes some sort of success. If I can spread the word about what each of us can do for others, then it is worth what we are going through."
All her adult life Helen gave to others in nursing homes, making music the vehicle to reach silent ones, immobile ones, indifferent ones. When Helen said dance or keep time, you jiggled. Couldn't help it.
Helen's new mission? It's making this slogan heard worldwide:
"Don't take your organs to heaven - for heaven knows, we need them here."
to reach Alice, call 513-352-2756 or email
[email protected] Alice can be heard Mondays at 11 a.m. on
WMKV 89.3 FM, or on the internet at http://www.wmkvfm.org
Publication date: 11-20-00
