Double transplant recipient stays in contact with donor's fatherEl Campo woman recalls wedding day, organ donation
* By BY J.R. ORTEGA - JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM
* Originally published September 12, 2009 at 12:51 p.m., updated September 12, 2009 at 12:55 p.m.
EL CAMPO - For Wanda Skrovan, it only made sense to be given away by a man she had just met for the first time.
After all, Mark Riley's 13-year-old son, Lance, was the sole reason she stood there, right arm hooked onto his.
That meeting on Skrovan's wedding day in October 2004 was tear-filled, she said recently.
The pair have met four times since the wedding and were planning to meet in July, but instead will meet hopefully in the coming month, Skrovan said.
After Riley's son died in a car wreck, all his organs were donated.
One person received his heart, another a kidney, but Skrovan received a double transplant.
Skrovan, now 39, had a kidney and liver transplant when she was 23 years old.
The stay-at-home housewife had contracted Hepatitis B and needed both organs from the same person.
Like many in need of an organ, she was put on a waiting list.
To Skrovan's surprise, it took only six months to receive the call that would give her, her life back.
"I knew a lot of people who were on a kidney machine waiting for three years," Skrovan said.
After recovering from the transplant at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Skrovan immediately began looking for a name for her donor.
Skrovan talked to organ donor coordinators who told her to write letters and they would pass them down to relatives.
After exchanging several letters with a man she simply knew as "Mark," the two finally heard each other's voices nearly a year and a half later.
However, it wasn't until 11 years later, that she would finally meet him.
The tears flowed, and the connection was strong, Riley said about their first meeting.
"As a parent and someone who loved their son, you feel a special connection with this person," said Riley, who lives in Wichita, Kan. "You feel that part of you beats inside the person."
Skrovan's father had passed away in 1998, but the connection she had with Riley through his son seemed like the perfect fit, she said.
Skrovan has old photos of Lance as well as photos of her, her husband, Jay, and Riley on some of their meetings.
It seemed only natural to ask Riley to walk her down the aisle during her wedding, Skrovan said.
"He wouldn't miss it for the world," was Riley's reaction, she said.
The two have met three or four times since the wedding, Skrovan said.
They exchange e-mails frequently and call each other once a month, she said.
It's hard to think what life would be like if she had never found out who her organ donor or who the donor's relatives were, she said.
Sixteen years later, and Skrovan said not a day goes by that she doesn't think about the 13-year-old boy.
For Skrovan, it's the small connections that keep Lance's memory alive.
Any time she craves a Three Musketeer's candy bar, she now knows, Lance wants one, too.
"They are very special in my eyes, and that's where I hold them" Riley said about Skrovan and her husband. "They're family."
HOW TO BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR
Texas has 388,683 organ donors listed. Here is how you can become a donor:
Visit
www.donatelifetexas.org Click on the SIGN UP link.
Fill out the basic information. (Have your Social Security Number as well as driver's license number in hand).
Select which organs you would like to donate upon your death.
Source: Donatelifetexas.org
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2009/sep/12/jo_coc_transplant_091309_65585/?news&calhoun-county
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