Claude Brady - was a patient at the National
Institutes of Health for 30 years. His family is the first family
ever diagnosed with a heart disease now know as Hypertrophic Cardiomyothy.
Claude was the first person diagnosed and his brother and sister followed.
His brother was transplanted 8-21-85. Claude was transplanted 6-17-89
at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, MD. They are the first brothers to ever
have heart transplants. Please see the brady
story for more details.
Claude is a founding member and active member of The
Nations Capital Area Chapter of TRIO. He has been on the Board of
Directors every year since the chapter was chartered. Claude is active
with the local OPO and on the speakers bureau. He is also involved in
many heath fairs and speaking engagements.
Claude founded Transplant Awareness Inc. after he got
tired of taking merchandise to support group meetings, and not having
the size or shirt someone wanted.
Pepper Dittinger -
Jack Gillespie - We lost one of the great ones on Friday, October
22, 2004. Jack Gillespie (76), a member of the “greatest generation” and
a long-term heart recipient died at Johns Hopkins. Jack lost his wonderful
wife, Shirley, in June and he just started leaving us after she was
gone. They had been married for 53 years. 
Jack
was in the Navy for many years and was buried at Arlington
National Cemetery, where
Shirley is waiting for him.
Jack received his heart transplant at Johns Hopkins on October 12,
1985, which kept him with us for 19 years and 10 days – certainly
one of the longest-lived heart transplants in the DC area. Jack was
very active in advocating for transplantation and he visited many transplant
candidates and recipients to educate them and to show them that “Transplantation
Works.”
He also devoted time as a board member of Transplant
Recipients International Organization – Nation’s Capitol Area Chapter, the Transplant
Foundation at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Transplant
Awareness, Inc. (TAI) – an organization that markets items to promote organ and
tissue donation.
Jack loved traveling with TAI to the Transplant Games to help sell
T-shirts and bumper stickers and donor awareness pins. He attended
the Games twice in Orlando.
Being a tax accountant, Jack had an interesting approach to his practice.
He outfitted an RV as a mobile tax office and he traveled to his clients
for many years, in his practice known as “1040, Inc.”
Shirley and Jack also were very active in coordinating and orchestrating
the Kensington, MD Labor Day Parade. As a reward, a few years ago Jack
and Shirley were chosen as the Grand Marshals of the parade. TRIO has
participated in that parade for many years.
Jack will be missed.
Linda Cheatham,
TRIO President
Amy Luxner - received a heart transplant at Allegheny
General Hospital in
Pittsburgh, PA on November 4, 1998 when she was 25 years old.
She was afflicted with genetic heart tumors, and had open heart surgery
in 1994 to have them removed. They were successfully removed, but grew
back, and Amy went in for open heart surgery again in March, 1998. Her
heart could not take the trauma of another heart surgery, and would
not start beating after the tumors were removed the second time. On
an emergency basis, an artificial heart pump was implanted in her left
ventricle, and she was placed, priority status, on the heart transplant
waiting list.
She waited in the hospital for 8 months before a suitable donor was
found. Her donor is Nicky, a 13 year old boy who passed away in a car
accident. Because of his mother's decision to donate his organs, Amy
was able to finish graduate school at Georgetown
University. She now works in marketing at The
Washington Post, and leads a full life, which includes traveling,
participating in sports, and volunteer work.
Douglas Sur - received a kidney & pancreas transplant January
1, 1997 at Washington Hospital
Center
in Washington DC. The surgery was performed by Dr. Jimmy Light. The
transplant was required as a result of complications from diabetes
and renal failure.
Douglas is an active member of The
Nations Capital Area Chapter of TRIO and a board member of Transplant
Awareness Inc..
Douglas is currently working at the National
Institutes of Health Warrant Grant Clinical Center as Web Team Lead. You can see his blog at http://spaces.msn.com/members/dsur/.
Note: Portraits courtesy of Jack
Pardue Studios.
