The Gift of Sight

March is National Eye Donor Month. I am proud to tell you that Brian was able to donate his corneas, despite the destruction of melanoma. There is no blood source to the corneas, so Brian qualified as a donor. I should receive follow-up information in a month or so regarding the actual successful transplant/s and also the destination of the unused portion of his eyes. They will likely be used for research, although there are a few options that the eyes can also be used for.

Brian wanted to be an organ donor. He had resigned himself that melanoma had destroyed so much, that there was nothing worth keeping. He asked me to investigate the possibility of him donating something to research, such as if they wanted to study his heart. His oncologist helped us with this, and felt that melanoma research is not to that point yet, and strongly felt that a donation like this would be used for teaching. Granted, those types of donations are very valuable; but not what Brian wanted. In the midst of digging up this info, we were informed by the Midwest Transplant Network of the opportunity to help a live recipient. I remember the day I told him, his eyes just lit up. He made me dig around a little more to verify that they really did want his corneas when he had battled melanoma, and the Heartland Lion's Eye Bank verified that his corneas were safe to transplant with zero risk of passing melanoma to someone else. Brian decided then that if this disease was going to kill him, he wanted to keep a part of himself here to help someone else. I will let you know what I find out when the information becomes available on his actual donation. The corneas had to be transplanted within 5-7 days, so by now, even in death, someone else's life has been touched.