Organ recipient shares story of hope during National Donate Life Month
April is National Donate Life Month in the United States, allowing people to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation.
It’s also a time to tell the stories of people who are living today because of organ donation.
Sandy Koenig just celebrated two years since receiving a double lung transplant at the Cleveland Clinic.
In 2016, Koenig was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that caused scarring in her lungs and made it difficult to breathe.
She said her story of survival is made possible because of someone who thought ahead to become a donor.
“To me, it's like a gift from God. It really is,” Koenig said.
With a flood of emotions, it’s hard for the 70-year-old Koenig to put into words the gratitude she has for the life she lives.
It’s all because of an organ donor who gave Sandy a second chance at life.
By 2022, the once active mom and grandmother had to always carry around a portable oxygen concentrator.
“I couldn't walk across the room, from here to the door, without stopping,” Koenig said.
A doctor she was seeing at the Cleveland Clinic decided it was time that Koenig be put on the list to receive a double lung transplant. Thankfully for Sandy and her family, the process moved fast.
“She goes, ‘We may have a set of lungs for you.’ And I went, 'What?'” Koenig said. “This is a week later. I've only been on the list for a week, and I said, ‘You've got to be kidding me.’”
Robert Winter, vice president of tissue services at Network for Hope, knows the impact that organ and tissue donation can have on a family.
“We are approaching families on one of the worst days that they're going to experience and to give them the ability or the hope that they can make the difference in the lives of others through donation is impactful,” Winter said.
Koenig said she will never forget the lifesaving gift from her donor.
“Why me and so many other people who don't make it?” Koenig asked. “I don't know, and so I figured, somebody said one time — not to get religious or anything — but God's not done with you yet.”
Becoming an organ, eye and tissue donor gives hope to 100,000 people on the National Organ Transplant waiting list, who are waiting for a second chance at life.
