In October of 2009, race director and co-owner of On Your Mark, a training center in Chicago, Annette Fiscelli became a living donor for her father, Pat Fiscelli. Since then, the two have recovered 110% and are doing great. You can read Pat’s letter to his daughter below.
Lives are saved everyday because of organ donations and it’s important to On Your Mark to reach out to others in hope of getting people more involved in organ donation. Therefore, On Your Mark is asking for donations as well as encouraging others to become organ donors. You never know who’s life may be saved because of organ donation. We’ve organized the Pioneer Trail Run, located in Palos, IL that will take place September 26th and would like anyone interested to join us. All proceeds will benefit Gift of Hope. Visit http://taachicago.com/ for more information regarding race details.
-Emily, On Your Mark
Pat with his daughter and living donor Annette
Oct 12 is my new birthday thanks to my family and friends with a special thanks to my daughter.
I had been monitoring my liver condition for several years, which was determined to be related to my autoimmune system causing a progression of cirrhosis of the liver. At age 63 I was detected with a severe case of cirrhosis of the liver, but because my belief that I could beat this, I maintained daily exercise routine which allowed me to hold off the outcome that a liver transplant was my only option.
As a result of my better than average health condition, I was assigned a meld number in the hundreds to be considered for a liver transplant. This meld number is based on several factors that are unique to each individual’s situation. At this point my chances of receiving a liver started to dwindling.
My family underwent great amounts of stress and emotions but conditioned to show their love and support. This kept me in a very positive mindset and fired-up to continue to be positive and believe that something, somehow would happen.
This is when my family took the ultimate step and offered a liver transplant. My son and wife were not the correct blood type but, by some miracle, my daughter (35-years-old) was a 100% match and offered to donate part of her liver. After much distress and concerns I had for her well being, I accepted her offer. In October 2009 we proceeded with the living transplant operation which appeared to be my final option. I can’t begin to express my thoughts in words for this sign of love and dedication to helping someone continue their life, coupled with the support of my family and friends. There was no way that I would have been able to survive for the past year, enjoying my family and friends more than ever. So my story ends with “they lived happily ever after.”
Thank you, Annette.
-Pat
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My brother was an engineer in Indianapolis who helped design chemical plants across the world. He was 42 when he went to the emergency room with severe abdominal pain.
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