Traveling the state for Lifeline of Ohio, Pati Dyer of Sciotoville, participates in presentations and health fairs to help educate people around the state about the importance of organ donation. But Dyer wanted to do even more, and she made two life-saving promises — one to God, and another to a woman she never before.

Dyer’s story began when her grand daughter, Bridget Johnson, of Sciotoville, was born on Nov. 28, 2007 with three congenital heart defects. She weighed only four-pounds and had two open heart surgeries before she was even one week old. At five weeks old, doctors told the family she would need a heart transplant. A donor was found when Trinity Maricle— only a few weeks old — passed away in Louisiana on Jan. 19, 2008 from Pierre Robin Syndrome.

Bridget is doing well today, Dyer said, but she remembers the promise she made to God.

“When Bridget was really sick and she was on that transplant list and we were given that really bad prognosis of her not surviving because of her age and her weight, I prayed very, very hard. You don’t have to be a religious person, but you do learn to pray really hard. I made a promise to God, and that’s the one person you don’t break promises to,” she said.

Her promise was to “pay it forward” and she became a volunteer for Lifeline of Ohio.

According to Lifeline of Ohio, there are about 2,800 people in Ohio on lifesaving transplant waiting lists, and about 56 percent of the state population is already a registered donor. In Scioto County, though, the number of donors is much lower — only about 39 percent.

“Just because you’re a registered donor don’t mean you get to donate when you become deceased. It takes a certain kind of death. Only around one percent even get the opportunity to become donors,” Dyer said.

Despite all the good work she had done with Lifeline, Dyer said she still didn’t feel she had reached her full potential. She decided to be a living kidney donor, herself, and share the gift that Trinity’s family gave to her. What followed was about six-months of medical tests and preparation at the Organ Transplant Center in Columbus.

“If there’s a medical test out there, they will run it on you. They want to make sure I’m in top notch,” she said. “During the last few tests they have, that’s when they start doing the cross-match.”

Some patients on the transplant waiting list need a living donor, she said, because they don’t have time to wait for tests to be completed on a deceased person. A kidney is only good for 48 hours, outside the human body.

On June 26, Dyer met patient Barb Steele, of Jamestown, Ohio, in her hospital room in Columbus.

“She had three close calls. The last call was so close, they prepped her for surgery and then came in and said, ‘By the way, I’m sorry, it’s not going to work out.’ I cannot even imagine what kind of a let down that would be,” Dyer said. “They were expecting this to fall through like the other three did. Their hopes weren’t getting too high, and I just hugged her and told her, ‘You’re going to get my kidney. I promise you that.”

That was the second promise that Dyer made, and she kept it. Thanks to that promise, Steele is home now and doing well.

“She’s going to be the grandmother they missed because she was on dialysis for four years. She was very sick, and she had 38 surgeries in those four years, and here’s her five grandchildren that were missing out on a lot of activities. After she gets adjusted to the medicine and gets adjusted to her new schedule, she’s going to be back to normal and those babies are going to have their grandmother back,” Dyer said.

She said Steele’s daughter, Stephanie, wanted to donate a kidney to her mother but couldn’t because she had kidney stones. Once her condition is cleared up, Stephanie plans on being a living organ donor also, to help another family in need.

“The Steele family is a wonderful family. I could not have possibly picked them any better than the transplant center did. The connection between me and them, and no between my family and their family, is very strong,” Dyer said.

Dyer called this the most rewarding experience in her life, and said she thinks people in Scioto County have misconceptions about organ donation.

“The number one thing I hear people say is they’re afraid if they say yes to donation, they’ll just let them die at the emergency room. That is not the case. It doesn’t work like that.” Kim Hardesty, of Lifeline of Ohio, said.

The entire donation process for by the recipient’s insurance as a life-saving procedure, and does not cost the donor anything. Nor are there any medical restrictions placed on the donor.

“If I could walk someone down the road I just walked down and let people see, this is just such a simple thing,” she said. “What I did was guarantee my spot to get to be a donor, and I didn’t have to die to do it.”

Anyone interested in becoming an organ donor can simply check that box at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. They also can visit Lifeline of Ohio online at www.lifelineofohio.org, or e-mail Dyer personally at brogdonp@hotmail.com, for information on registering and facts about donating.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 235, or e-mail pdtwriter@ryanscottottney.com.