Hannah Helps

Last Wednesday was an amazing day. We had the opportunity to meet Nyla, our second of Hannah’s four organ donation recipients. She lives on a small hobby farm in northern Wisconsin, and it took us just over four hours to get there. She has some of the same birds that we have had like chickens, ducks, and at times turkeys, but she also has parrots. There were a few horses and goats too. Nyla served for thirty-two years in the United States Army Reserve and earned the rank of Sergeant First Class while serving as a maintenance supervisor. She was deployed in Afghanistan for a while then taught vehicle and equipment maintenance here in the state to both the Reserve and the National Guard troops. She said that she was responsible for maintaining basically all vehicles with an engine, and other equipment too, like generators. She is a strong woman with a firm handshake and a can-do attitude.

After retirement, Nyla’s health began to suffer as she developed kidney disease. This made her sick a lot and led to her needing regular in-home dialysis. During this time, her husband developed cancer. Prior to this, he had been cautious with his health and had been sending in samples annually to be screened for cancer through a common, in-home, do-it-yourself testing company often seen advertised on TV. Much to their disappointment, these screenings were not accurate. After issues began to develop, he went to his doctor and that’s when the cancer was discovered. It had been present for quite a while and it had spread. They took care of each other for several years and continued to work hard on the “farm” that they had built together.

As her kidneys were failing, Nyla was placed on the organ donation list as a recipient for a transplant. Since she is a veteran, she goes through the VA for her medical needs. Her VA doctors were in Minnesota and when the time for her transplant came, she drove to MN and was then flown down to Chicago for the operation. On the morning of November 11, the day after Hannah passed, she received her “Gift of Life,” a new kidney! The operation went well, but she did have some difficulty during the recovery. For some reason she didn’t have much of an appetite and was losing blood internally. She was given some transfusions and the doctors told her that it was just due to the surgery and that they were going to send her to a hotel for recovery. But Nyla wasn’t comfortable physically or with being sent to a hotel to recover. While laying in her hospital bed, she was feeling lots of pressure inside. Due to her refusal to leave and her insistence that something else was wrong, the doctors did more imaging. Through this, they discovered that Nyla was right! Because of the blood thinners and blood pressure medications that they had put her on, an aneurism had developed on an artery alongside her spine, and it had ruptured! The pressure was from the blood filling her up inside. They performed another surgery and cauterized the aneurysm, and she began to slowly improve as the blood was absorbed back into her system. She was very thankful that she insisted on staying in the hospital!

After she returned home, she began feeling far better than she had in years. She says that Hannah’s kidney is working amazingly well. She has not felt this good in years and her “numbers” have not been this good in years either! We did learn one thing curious too. Since she received Hannah’s kidney, she has lost her appetite for peanut butter and now loves eating the chocolate hazelnut spread instead! Hannah’s love for chocolate seems to have affected both Abby and Nyla tremendously, and her aversion to peanut butter is evident too. Strange how these things work… It was wonderful to be able to meet someone with whom we have such an amazing connection. Unfortunately, nearly two months after her receiving the “Gift of Life,” Nyla’s husband lost his battle with cancer. The cancer had gone through DNA mutation and had spread rapidly. He was able to see her “healed” and she was able to be by his side to the end. WOW!!

We spent around three hours with Nyla then we let her go back to her chores and we headed home. Halfway back to our house, we stopped for gas and then at the Culver’s across the street to use up some free scoop coupons that we had from the kid’s meal bags. While we were waiting for our custard in the drive through line, two women came outside the building to eat their meals on the patio. They were wearing, “Donate Life” shirts! It was crazy! Janean and I talked for a minute about getting out and meeting them then she got out of the car while the boys and I waited for our food. Once that came, the two women, Tracie and Melissa, invited us to join them at their table. We sat and talked with them for quite a while. We shared the things that had happened with Hannah and also about our first meeting with Nyla. They told us that they weren’t from that area either. Apparently, they are part of the community outreach for the UW Health system for organ and tissue donation. They had been at an organ donation conference and were heading back to Madison (an hour away from where we were). They explained that Versiti handles organ donations mainly in the Milwaukee area, and UW Health takes care of the rest of the state. We had a great time with them and are looking forward to being able to partner with them in the support and awareness of organ donation. Before we left, we were able to take a few pictures with them. A woman who came out of Culver’s with her family (they were not from that area either) was willing to take the picture. We are very thankful for this family too and were able to share with them about the life of our amazing daughter, and about our unique meeting with Tracie and Melissa.

It was another amazing day in the life of Hannah Helps! Not only were we able to meet for the first time with Nyla, an amazing woman with whom we share this very personal and unique connection, but we were also able to meet Tracie and Melissa too! We could clearly see God’s hand at work in what we are doing! As we drove the final two hours home, we kept marveling at how He orchestrates our lives. We would have thought that meeting Nyla was tremendous enough by itself, but we couldn’t get passed all the “coincidences” that came together for us to meet Tracie and Melissa too. We each came from very different and distant places. We were operating on very different schedules.  We each were a long way from our homes. We each decided to stop at the same Culver’s. We went through the drive through and wouldn’t have seen them if they hadn’t decided to eat outside, right next to where we were waiting for our food. As we see God’s hand at work in our lives now, we also continue to remember that He has been working in us all along the way, even when we were losing Hannah. We don’t know all the “whys,” but we do know that this is His plan and not ours.

We are blessed.