Tennova - LaFollette Medical Center hosts Donate Life Event

“As a transplant recipient of now almost 33 years it has gave me a chance to be a husband and father and finish school and be a teacher,” Jarvis said. “Then eventually go to work for the people that gave you a chance to live. My family had chronic kidney disease my entire life. My mom and their brothers and sisters were on dialysis and had transplants. They all died young unfortunately. When I had the chance to go and work for TDS in 1999 it was a way for me to give back and honor my family’s memory and really have a chance to help others that are going through the same thing that you went through. I was one of the lucky ones at 21 that got a second chance. I had a chance to talk to my donor family and they said as long as you live just keep our son’s memory alive and honor his gift. That’s what I’ve tried to do. I’ve got to meet incredible families, the donors I’ve worked with over the years and certainly the recipients I have had the chance to meet and hopefully mentor some of them to let them know that hey, you can go back to living your life. It’s not something that after you get a transplant you have to focus on, no, live. That’s what your donor would want you to do and give back and try to be a good person and really do the best with the best gift you could possibly ever be given. I never thought I would live to be this old. I have been extremely blessed. The people you get to meet and work with, it’s just inspirational every single day.”

The crowd also heard from LaFollette Press Editor Robby O’Daniel who spoke about his son Patrick who received a heart transplant shortly after his birth.

Patrick is now nearly three years old.

“When he was born we kind of had a general idea that you know, we were kind of given the heads up that there might be some disfunction with the heart but it wasn’t a for sure thing and we didn’t know the severity of it,” Robby O’Daniel said. “Within 3 days we were basically shipped to Vanderbilt and told that he would have to get a heart transplant. I would say within three days we had a surgeon telling us, I don’t know if he’s going to survive this cath operation. It’s not exactly the smooth birth we thought it was going to be but we were lucky in the sense that they found out pretty quickly like with in the first week that we needed a heart transplant for Patrick and we got put on the waiting list and were approved. Within a little over two months he got the heart that he needed for the heart transplant. I remember my wife crying as she said that to me over the phone. It just meant so much.”

Robby closed by talking about how lucky he and his family are that Patrick was able to receive the transplant he needed and how grateful and thankful they are for the donor and donor family that was able to donate to Patrick the heart he needed.

East LaFollette Baptist Church Pastor Zach Lloyd briefly spoke about the importance of donating and challenged those attendance to think about becoming donors if they aren’t already.

Campbell County mayor Jack Lynch presented a proclamation making April Donate Life Month in Campbell County to Tennova — LaFollette Medical Center CEO Mark Cain.