Altoona area pastor Paul Johnson sees the irony in the life-saving gesture of a Pittsburgh fireman whose kidney now rests inside of Johnson\u2019s abdomen.
\nTwenty years ago, with Johnson near death after suffering kidney failure and in dire need of a transplant, it was the deceased fireman\u2019s kidney that revived him and ultimately allowed him to stand in front of a group of 30 Tyrone Area High School students recently and share his story.
\n\u201cWhen he lived, he tried to save lives,\u201d Johnson said of the fireman. \u201cWhen he died he saved mine.\u201d
\nJohnson\u2019s speech was part of a day-long series of presentations at the high school made by the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), a non-profit agency that manages the organ and tissue donor program for western Pennsylvania. The audience was composed of senior high students taking English 10, Driver\u2019s Education and Health Tech.
\nThe presentation came on the heels of April\u2019s National Donate Life Month and was one of the cornerstones of a new program implemented at the high school to make young people aware of the importance of registering to be an organ and tissue donor, according to 10th grade English teacher, Leah Dobrowolsky.
\n\u201cWe work with students who will be getting their driver\u2019s licenses and will be asked a question (about becoming an organ donor),\u201d Dobrowolsky said. \u201cOften, they don\u2019t have the background information to make an informed decision.\u201d
\nThat was why in 1994 Act 102 was passed to create an organ donor fund that supports statewide efforts to increase organ and tissue donation awareness. As part of the program, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, along with the Department of Health, makes available grant money to school districts to promote organ and tissue donation education.
\nThe grants are distributed by Lebanon-Lancaster Intermediate Unit 13, and this year Tyrone was one of only six schools in the state to be awarded the grant funds, which total $5,000 and are earmarked for implementing a long-term organ and tissue donation education program.
\nDobrowolsky was one of three teachers at Tyrone to take responsibility for developing the program, along with History\/Driver\u2019s Education teacher Rob Walter and Health Tech teacher Christie Vargo.
\nIncluded in year-one of Tyrone\u2019s program are activities ranging from English essays researching organ and tissue donation to an awareness table on OTDA set up by the Tyrone Renaissance Club.
\nThursday\u2019s presentation, with Johnson as the featured speaker, was attended by more than 150 students ranging from grades 10 through 12 over the course of five periods.
\n\u201cPeople ages 16 to 24 are the ones that are saying yes to donation,\u201d Johnson, who is the pastor of the 18th Street Community Church, told his audience.
\nJohnson said he was actually a two-time kidney transplant recipient. Two years ago, after his donated kidney failed, he received another from his 31-year-old niece, who was a living donor.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s obvious why it is important for me to speak about organ and tissue donation,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI think it\u2019s even more important now that schools are taking on this program.\u201d
\nAlong with Johnson\u2019s personal story, the presentation also included an educational segment led by CORE representative Cherie Cain, who encouraged students to become more informed about the organ and tissue donation process. She also tried to dispel myths that she said persist about the procedure.
\n\u201cThe No. 1 misconception is that doctors won\u2019t try as hard to save you if you\u2019re an organ donor,\u201d Cain told the students.
\nCain said Tyrone was the only school in Blair County to receive the grant this year.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a new program, but as more teachers get wind of it, I think it will grow a lot more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Altoona area pastor Paul Johnson sees the irony in the life-saving gesture of a Pittsburgh fireman whose kidney now rests inside of Johnson\u2019s abdomen. Twenty years ago, with Johnson near death after suffering kidney failure and in dire need of a transplant, it was the deceased fireman\u2019s kidney that revived him and ultimately allowed him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}