Students rally to help one of their own with heart transplant expenses

Huron Heights Secondary School teacher Sheila Weidinger (right) with students Marco de Bruyn (left), 16, and Brandon Parsons (center), 18, are raising money for Brandon Grimaldi's medical costs.

Photo: Peter Lee, Record Staff

BY LUISA D’AMATO Waterloo Region Record, Ontario, Canada

KITCHENER — Dozens of students at Huron Heights Secondary School have never even met fellow student Brandon Grimaldi, but they’re working hard to raise thousands of dollars for him anyway.

Grimaldi, 14, had heart surgery earlier this year after suffering childhood health problems since he was born. He needs $2,000 a month in medication, mostly to make sure his body doesn’t reject the new heart.

But his family has maxed out their drug plan at $800 for the year. They’re working on getting better coverage through the government, but it hasn’t happened yet, and Grimaldi can’t wait.

Once students at the school heard there was a problem, they blitzed the region, asking stores for items that could be sold at a silent auction Dec. 8 to benefit Brandon and his family.

They’ve raised $1,700 in cash already, and have about 200 items to sell next week. Students will run the silent auction at the school from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. It is open to the public.

“I think it’s really good that we’re helping a student in our own school,” said Marco de Bruyn, 16.

He doesn’t know Grimaldi, but “he looks like a nice kid,” he said.

“He’s one of our own,” agreed fellow student Tasha Connell, also 16.

“I see him in the halls and he always has a smile on his face.”

Both Marco and Tasha are students of Sheila Weidinger, who teaches marketing and business leadership at Huron Heights. Weidinger got the idea to help Grimaldi after talking with his guidance counsellor.

She routinely has her marketing students plan and carry out fundraising projects. This year, the class voted to help Grimaldi instead of choosing a charity.

Grimaldi’s family says he isn’t comfortable being in the public spotlight, but he is grateful for the help and support.

“It’s overwhelming to see how these kids have all come together,” Weidinger said.

She pointed out that some of her most enthusiastic and effective fundraisers are the students who are not usually motivated by school assignments.

“They were so excited,” she said. “It’s always so rewarding when you can reach the student who may not necessarily enjoy classes and school, but they feel good about their ability to help someone else.”

Students got cash donations from some companies, and gift items from others, such as a hockey stick from former Leafs captain Mats Sundin, jewelry, spa packages, an autographed Kitchener Rangers jersey, and a day out in Toronto, including tickets to a show.

The big gifts were meaningful, but so were some of the smaller ones, like the $5 in change that one student dug out of his pocket for the cause, Weidinger said.

“They have made me unbelievably proud,” she said.

“They look at Brandon as one who’s really struggled and persevered, and come through. They admire him.”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

Paying organ donors' expenses at center of ethics debate

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

Organ donors, living and dead, would receive more money for expenses under an initiative being proposed today designed to shorten the wait for transplants.

The National Kidney Foundation, a New-York based non-profit, released a set of recommendations it says could end the wait for a kidney in 10 years.

Currently, 78,209 people are waiting for kidneys in the USA, representing 77% of all those waiting for donated organs.

Organ donation "is a good thing to do, it's the right thing to do, and no family should be hurt by doing it," says John Davis, the foundation's chief executive. "Families … fall through the cracks and get bills from hospitals and funeral homes, and they didn't expect it."

Of the recommendations, the most controversial may be that organ-procurement organizations cover donation-incurred funeral expenses for families who donate a relative's organs. Preparing the body for burial can require extra time and expense. In 2007, 22,049 of the 28,360 organ transplants were from deceased donors, according the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Ethical concerns are being raised. Helping people with funeral expenses "crosses over into helping bribe them," says Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. "You're edging towards financial incentives rather than compensation."

he foundation also calls for all living donor costs to be covered because unexpected expenses can add up.

When Tom Falsey of Shawnee, Kan., donated a kidney to a stranger, the patient's insurance paid for the medical costs, but Falsey paid to travel to Nebraska for tests and the transplant. He also had to pay hotel costs for his wife, who accompanied him. "It was about $1,000," he says. "I knew there would be expenses, but I didn't know that they would be so high." These peripheral expenses are not covered by Medicare or private insurance.

About 4,500 people a year die waiting for a kidney. The number of people who will go on dialysis and need a kidney is expected to double in the next few years, as the population ages, says David Hull, head of transplantation at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Sally Satel, a kidney recipient and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who writes on the need to create financial incentives for kidney donation, says it doesn't go far enough. She supports incentives that go beyond covering expenses.

"This is not original and will be by no means sufficient to close the gap between supply and demand," she says. "It's too timid."

The foundation says it will work with Congress to draft a bill that would implement its recommendations, which would be paid for by a combination of Medicare and private insurance.

Other recommendations for the foundation's "End the Wait!" initiative include:

•Covering immunosuppressive drugs for life. Medicare pays for only three years. After that, some patients can't afford the drugs and go back on dialysis. The drugs cost about $12,000 a year; dialysis, $71,000 a year.

•Guaranteeing living donors health care coverage and life insurance for all medical issues related to the donation.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Horseback Charity Ride for children

I always have a soft spot in my heart for initiatives that help provide financial support for organ transplant patients. It's my pleasure to promote Phil and Patty Dawson's efforts to help kids with their medical expenses.

From WTVQ, Lexington, KY:

They are a couple on a mission to help America's children and they are doing it by horseback.

Phil Dawson and his wife Patty were in Lexington Friday. It's the latest stop on their "Ride America" tour.

The couple has taken turns riding their horses Jet and Billy since May 1st, when they left a state park in Idaho on their way to a state park in Richmond, Virginia.

It's a journey of nearly three thousand miles all to raise awareness and money for children who suffer from long term illnesses.

"Those waiting on heart transplants, organ transplants and these are the kids that don't get as much funding to take care of their financial needs, you know their medical finances," says Phil Dawson.

The Dawson's plan to reach Richmond, Virginia sometime in October.

If you want more information about their trip or want to donate money to their cause: American Fundraisers.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation