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Posts Tagged ‘Transplant Games’

It’s funny — I knew when I was there that the Transplant Games were something special. I knew it when I got home back in July. I would have told you earlier today, if you’d asked, that “Yep, they were definitely something special.” But tonight, when I watched the full-length official [...]

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Let’s hear it for my hometown!  Two great items to share with our living donor community and its extended members of transplant recipients, families and friends, and health care professionals.  Both nuggest come from my original stomping grounds here on the planet: Des Moines, Iowa.
First, today in the Des Moines Register there’s a terrific article by [...]

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Wow.  Honestly, it’s about all I can think of to say about the amazing experience I just took part in this week. Wow.  For all of you who were there, all 6,000 of you — the 1,500 athletes, the 159 living organ donors, the thousands of you who came in honor and remembrance of your [...]

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Watching the athletes today, there were several times where it was easy to forget that every single one of them has received a life-saving organ transplant:  A heart, lungs, kidney, liver, bone marrow, or even combinations of these things.  Some multiple times.  Every single athlete, from the guy bowling high 200s to the tot running [...]

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Joe’s Team Northwest not only made it to the Elite 8, but even went on to the Final Four, where in a hard-fought battle they lost the Bronze to a marvelous Team Illinois.  Georgia took the Gold, and Michigan the silver. 
 
 
 

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For me, this is the shot of the day.  This wonderful woman from Pittsburgh didn’t finish first, second, or third in the women’s 1500-yard race, but she finished.
Afterwards she talked for a while with a fellow athlete who, she had just learned that day, had gone to her same high school.

Just like any track [...]

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Okay, so it’s my blog, I get to do a little bragging.  Joe did not, alas, “dominate in ping pong” as I might have previously predicted, thanks to Darren from Team Arizona, but his 3-on-3 co-ed basketball team has advanced to the Elite 8 in the tournament for the Gold! I believe this portrait says [...]

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Ugh, I’m tired! It’s 1 a.m. and we just got back to the hotel after the long and emotional opening ceremonies (where I shook the hand of Larry Hagman, um, wow).  I also got to meet two other Games MVPs (at least in my eyes).  One was Chris Klug, who had the same disease as [...]

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We’ve all arrived safely in Pittsburgh — Joe, my terrific parents Len and Gary, and me, and let me tell you:  The nation’s organ transplant community has descended on this town!  I started to feel the celebratory and reverent vibe that pervades these games before I even left Minneapolis, as I stood near my gate [...]

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I’m not bragging, just giving you due advanced notice. My brother Joe is going to dominate in men’s table tennis this year in Pittsburgh!  The technique behind his prowress is top secret (and, doubtless, attributable in part to the grade-A liver tissue I gave him in 2006), there’s a very fun video on YouTube you can [...]

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