Recipient Stories

Recipient Stories

Organ, eye and tissue donations can have a lasting impact on transplant recipients and their loved ones. Hear real-life stories from individuals who have received lifesaving and life-enhancing transplants, thanks to the generosity of donors and their families.

Olivia Eisenhauer

Olivia Eisenhauer

An otherwise normal teenager, Olivia was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy and learned she would need a heart transplant. She can never thank her donor enough.

Olivia Eisenhauer was an ordinary, active teenager. That all changed the day she collapsed between volleyball matches and was unconscious and without a heartbeat for several minutes. Miraculously, Olivia survived — yet she and her family did not know what caused her sudden cardiac arrest. Eventually, she was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy and learned she would need a heart transplant.

Margaret Gorrell's family

Margaret Gorrell

Baby Margaret desperately needed a transplant for her enlarged heart. After five months in the ICU, the call finally came that Margaret would receive a new heart.

In early 2017, Kristen Gorrell suffered cardiac arrest during the middle of the night. Her husband, Bryce, performed lifesaving CPR. Soon afterward, Bryce and Kristen’s previously healthy baby, Margaret, fell ill. Doctors could not determine what was wrong. Soon, Margaret was so sick that Kristen and Bryce admitted her to the hospital, where she received a chest X-ray revealing her enlarged heart. With a resting heart rate of 200 beats per minute, she desperately needed a transplant.

Recipient Joe Rethford

Joe Rethford

Thanks to donor tissue used for reconstruction, Joe was able to get back to normal life after falling from a ladder and suffering devastating compound fractures in both wrists.

Riding motorcycles and playing guitar are two of Joe’s favorite hobbies – hobbies he didn’t think he’d ever be able to enjoy again after falling from a ladder and suffering compound fractures in both wrists.

Read about donor families and the impact their loved ones made, or tell us about your own personal experience with organ donation.