Lowell Sun: A life lost, three lives saved
By: Todd Feathers, tfeathers@lowellsun.com, Apr 24 2016
Mike Ashworth
PELHAM – On Sept. 13, 2014, Mike Ashworth, of Warwick, R.I. was sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast when he got the call he’d been waiting for for four years: There was a heart for him in Boston.
The same day, Liz Molina-Cordero was rushing from Springfield to Boston Children’s Hospital with her son Julian, a 22-month-old born with a congenital kidney disease who couldn’t walk and had spent most of his short life in a hospital.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, David Kincman, of Pelham, was lying on his deathbed, skin jaundiced and eyes yellow, his liver and kidney failing. On the same hospital floor, Debra and David Sullivan were sitting by their son Kevin’s bed.
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“The donors make all the difference,” Ashworth said. “Since then, I’ve celebrated my 35th anniversary, my 34th Father’s Day, and my 59th birthday. …I can never thank them enough.”
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Twenty-two people die each day while waiting for an organ donation, and the shortage is particularly acute in New England where strict safe-driving laws and better-than-average medical care combine to reduce the number of premature deaths, according to the New England Organ Bank.
All three families urge everyone to become a donor, either by formally registering or letting family members know of your choice. With improvements in medicine, anyone, regardless of existing medical conditions, can be a registered donor.
“Being a donor, it gives someone else a chance at life,” Ashworth said.
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