April 2015 – stevebaum.org

Thank You to the Williamson Herald for helping us to get the word out for April is Donate Life Month!

http://www.williamsonherald.com/opinion/article_c4e6f462-e97d-11e4-afa3-e3c4ad3f098f.html

April is National Donate Life Month 1

Steve Baum

Steve Baum is a liver and kidney recipient and long-time Franklin resident. He resides in Franklin with Anne, a teacher and his wife of over 40 years. He is an active volunteer in several health-related foundations. You can read more at: https://stevebaum.wordpress.com

Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2015 12:58 am

By Steve Baum• For the Herald |

In November 2009 at 11 minutes before 11 p.m. on the day before the 11th, we received the call that a liver and kidney had become available for my life-saving transplant. My family suffers from the genetic disorders of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) and Liver Disease (PLD). My organs were massively enlarged and shutting down. The liver they removed weighed 30 pounds; the kidney weighed nine pounds.

But did these circumstances come about solely because of fickle fate or was it a small piece of God’s plan? It was the incredible generosity of an anonymous organ donor that saved my life. And where was God’s hand in this? God guided the heart of my donor and gave me and my family the strength and will to persevere through:

Faith. Without pure, unadulterated faith it could have turned out quite differently. With a chronic disease and a slow descent you get a lot of time for both reflection and prayer.

Very early on I stopped praying for improved health and the delivery of a miracle and instead came to pray that “God’s will be done.” Oh, I desperately wanted to live, don’t get me wrong, but I concluded that if you believe in a soul, in an afterlife, and have faith in a power greater than yourselves then you cannot fear death. I prepared myself truly believing the outcome would be what it was supposed to be and I made the necessary preparations for my wife, Anne, and the kids.

Hope. While faith comes from within, hope is where all your loved ones, your friends, the complete strangers who hear about your situation carry you further than you could ever go alone. Hope is contagious and, when driven by so many, powerful. There were many times in the hospital that we knew we were uplifted up by the hopes and prayers of so many, such as the time when they almost lost me in an internal bleeding episode.

Charity. I don’t know my donor’s name or family. We have written twice to them and not yet received a response and that is certainly their right. Frankly, I sometimes have a hard time feeling worthy enough and there is so much I need to do to live up to my donor’s charity. Maybe that’s why I’m so driven: a goal of enrolling 1,000 new donors and regular participation in sporting events identified as an organ recipient. I never actually win an event: I do it to honor the incredible charity of my donor.

And the greatest of these forces is Love, of course, and I have received much more than my share.

Beyond that? God’s will be done. There are currently over 123,000 people waiting for organs in the United States. Hear the call and become an organ and tissue donor today!

www.donatelifetn.org

There are currently over 123,000 people waiting for organs in the US. Steve Baum is a liver and kidney recipient and long-time Franklin resident. He resides in Franklin with Anne, a teacher and his wife of over 40 years. Anne was his primary caregiver over the eight years of his chronic illness. He is an active volunteer in several health-related foundations. You can read more at:

https://stevebaum.wordpress.com

Thank You to the Home Page Group for Allowing Anne and I to promote being an Organ Donor during Donate Life Month

BE HEALTHY GUIDE: Steve Baum brings to light the gift of life

Editor’s note: There are currently over 123,000 people waiting for organs in the US. Steve Baum is a liver and kidney recipient and he and his wife, Anne, are participating in the “Be Healthy Challenge.”

In November 2009 at 11 minutes before 11 p.m. on the day before the 11th, we received the call that a liver and kidney had become available for my life-saving transplant.

My family suffers from the genetic disorders of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) and Polycystic Liver Disease (PLD). My organs were massively enlarged and shutting down; the liver they removed weighed 30 pounds and the kidney nine.

But, did these circumstances come about solely because of fickle fate or was it a small piece of God’s plan?

It was the incredible generosity of an anonymous organ donor that saved my life. And where was God’s hand in this? God guided the heart of my donor and gave me and my family the strength and will to persevere through.

Without pure, unadulterated faith, it could have turned out quite differently. With a chronic disease and a slow descent you get a lot of time for both reflection and prayer.

Very early on I stopped praying for improved health and the delivery of a miracle and instead came to pray that “God’s will will be done.”

Oh, I desperately wanted to live, don’t get me wrong, but I concluded that if you believe in a soul, in an afterlife and have faith in a power greater than yourselves, then you cannot fear death. I prepared myself truly believing the outcome would be what it was supposed to be and I made the necessary preparations for my wife, Anne, and the kids.

While faith comes from within, hope is where all your loved ones, your friends and the complete strangers who hear about your situation carry you further than you could ever go alone. Hope is contagious and, when driven by so many, powerful.

There were many times in the hospital, like when they almost lost me in an internal bleeding episode, that we knew we were uplifted up by the hopes and prayers of so many.

I don’t know my donor’s name or family. We have written twice to them and not yet received a response and that is certainly their right. Frankly, I sometimes have a hard time feeling worthy enough, and there is so much I need to do to live up to my donor’s charity.

Maybe that’s why I’m so driven: a goal of enrolling 1,000 new donors and regular participation in sporting events identified as an organ recipient. I never actually win an event; I do it to honor the incredible charity of my donor.

And the greatest of these forces is Love, of course, and I have received much more than my share.

Beyond that? God’s will be done. Hear the call and become an organ and tissue donor today! donatelifetn.org

Steve Baum is a double organ transplant recipient and longtime Franklin resident. He is an active volunteer in several health-related foundations.

Donate Life Month, April 2015

Easter and Passover 2015

In honor of Donate Life Month the man shared a letter he wrote to the family of his organ donor whom he does not know. Please join us appreciating the tragedy and decision faced by that family.

“Good morning,

We hope this letter reaches you and your family in good health and a blessed holiday season!

We have a life connection: your family and mine. One that caused your family the greatest hurt but gave my family and me the greatest hope. It happened five years ago…

I was dying. One of those long, slow chronic illnesses that runs in families and ours goes for the kidneys first and starts crushing them with cysts from the outside before choking them off from the inside. In my case the liver was predisposed for this, too, and it began to grow, covered with cysts the size of oranges, then softballs, and then grapefruits. In time it was going to cut off all those things the body needs to stay alive: eating, swallowing, breathing. And there was only one way to stop it…it had to be replaced.

Your son, brother, husband, father was in a horrible accident on that November day and there was nothing the doctors could do. You made the decision to try to save lives, and his liver and a kidney were given to me.

We don’t know the details and don’t need to but, with your permission, I’d like to know your loved one’s, my donor’s, name. We would like to meet you. And I wish I could tell him, and you, everything that has happened as a result of your generosity and sacrifice.

I could tell you that receiving that gift of life allowed me to live with my loved ones in a way we thought might not be possible. It allowed me to get up and get out and be a husband, a father, a grandfather longer than we had hoped.

There isn’t enough space to share all the things I’ve tried to do to show my thanks, make it right, and pay it forward. Just know that my wife and I hope our efforts and speeches, walks and donor sign-up tables, and even sports successes and personal testimony may help to make some other families know hope and receive the gift of life, too.

But nothing that I can do, until the end, can match both the sorrow you have felt and the generosity you have shown to saves the lives, like mine, that were running out of time but never hope or faith.

My family and I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving and want you to know we think about you, and say thanks to you too, at every Thanksgiving we can share together now.

Thank you and God bless you.”