Extraordinary People:

Stephanie Page

Stephanie Page
Westmoreland County

At 4’11" and 98 pounds, I’m petite and have been throughout my 50 years of life. So, needless to say, when I tell people that I have four kidneys and two pancreases, they are shocked. But really, I’m very lucky. I’m alive today because I’m an organ transplant recipient.

In 1975, as a first-semester college senior at Point Park University in downtown Pittsburgh, I was diagnosed with diabetes, which I had contracted from a virus. It was around Christmas time, I was a soloist with a local dance company, practicing and performing for eight hours each day. By the time I arrived home for semester break, I was run down, drinking fluids constantly and going to the bathroom frequently -- now I know those are primary symptoms of diabetes.

When I was diagnosed that December, I was shocked. However, I managed my disease with insulin and a proper diet. I was able to graduate and began teaching dance at the college level. However, a year later, tragedy struck. My fiancé -- my college sweetheart -- was killed in an automobile accident and my life was turned upside down. I stopped caring for my diabetes and consequently myself.

Through out the next several years, as a result of the diabetes, my bones became very brittle, fracturing and breaking often. My health deteriorated and I was placed on dialysis. At that point, I had to give up my dance career -- a devastating realization of how sick I had actually become. I was hospitalized 12 times the year before my first transplant. In November of 1990, I had a kidney and islet cell (cells found within the pancreas, which produce enzymes and insulin) transplant. My kidney functioned perfectly and I no longer needed dialysis but the islet cell transplant was an experimental procedure that did not work. I was grateful for the gift of transplantation, and while my health was greatly improved, I still had the diabetes.

As a result, this led to my second transplant, which truly changed my life.

On my 40th birthday, February 7, 1996, I received the call to come to the hospital -- they had found a match. The next day, I was given the greatest gift, the gift of life. Thanks to the generosity of Charlene and Don Brode, I received a kidney and a pancreas from their 14-year-old-son, Brad.

It turned out to be a wonderful year in more ways than one. Not only was I alive and feeling better than ever but I also married a remarkable man, Doug Page, who I had met at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center the previous year. He was also a transplant recipient and was volunteering with TRIO (Transplant Recipients International Organization), providing support and encouragement to fellow recipients. We had three great years together until he passed away - time we were fortunate to have because of the kindness and gifts of life from organ donors.

Today, more than 10 years since my second transplant, my diabetes has gone away. I feel great; no longer take insulin and can eat whatever I want. It’s truly amazing. And, while I can’t dance anymore because of the damage to my bones, I work at a fitness center and continue to be active.

Organ donation has made such an impact on my life and it’s important to me to give back, so I speak on behalf of CORE (Center for Organ Recovery & Donation), TRIO, and I’m also very involved with The National Kidney Foundation, running a support group for recipients and caregivers. Whenever I speak to people about donation, I always end with this poem, called To Remember Me, by Robert N. Test, and encourage them to consider becoming a donor.

At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my "deathbed." Call it my "bed of life," and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to a man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teen-ager who has been pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body, and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her windows.

Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses, and all my prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God. If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

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