Guest Stories
Meet Matthew Young
“A lot of people say they are scared of death – and don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to die – but the life I’m living isn’t great.” The college students seated around 21-year-old Matthew Young in Transplant House’s programming space are all within a year or two of his age. They are listening…
Read MoreMeet Todd and Dreama Cooper
*All names of other guests mentioned have been changed to protect their privacy. The first thing Dreama Cooper says about her husband Todd is that he “has nine lives.” The Cooper’s transplant journey has been a difficult one. And while each transplant experience is unique, the challenges Dreama and Todd have faced are ones many…
Read MoreMeet Miriam and Ron Weaver
Imagine learning that you would need to be away from your home, your family, and your community for at least 100 days in unfamiliar surroundings while navigating a life-changing medical diagnosis. For Miriam Weaver, who came to Cleveland with her husband Ron in need of a bone marrow transplant, she knew that she would have…
Read MoreMeet Amanda Gruendell and Christine Gossett
Christine Gossett was 14 years old when she was told that she did not have a uterus. “When I got that diagnosis, it was devastating news for a teenage girl,” she remembers. “It’s traumatizing to hear there’s no hope for you, that you’re not ever going to be able to become pregnant.” Like Christine, Amanda…
Read MoreMeet Donna and Thomas Plummer
During a two-day surgery in May of 2022, Donna Plummer received her liver transplant. Of those days and the weeks of recovery in the ICU that followed, Donna admits she remembers very little. “I was just surviving,” she says. “It’s come out pretty well I think, but there were some struggles. But we had a…
Read MoreMeet Jennifer Alley
Jennifer Alley had her intestinal transplant in July of 2004. In 2008 she gave birth to her son, Felton. “I was the first adult small bowel recipient to give birth,” Jennifer says. Jennifer Alley’s transplant journey began with a diagnosis of myopathic obstruction. What that meant, as Jennifer explains, is that she had no gastrointestinal…
Read MoreMeet Aly, Noland, and Wyvette Williams
Six years ago, Noland Williams learned he would need a liver transplant. Within a year he was listed, but Noland would continue to wait for a liver for another five years. “He had been on the list for so long,” his wife, Wyvette, recalls, “and he was getting sicker as the years went by.” Their…
Read MoreMeet Mike and Melissa Komula
“We just like it here, huh?” Mike Komula asks his wife Melissa as they sit side-by-side on the couch in Transplant House’s community space. They have been speaking for almost an hour about their many stays at Transplant House (73 nights, including a seven week stay, spread over nearly four-and-a-half years). Melissa, holding his hand…
Read MoreMeet Kathie and Brian Holmes
As an oncology nurse at a small community hospital, Kathie Holmes is all too aware of how a person’s life can change in an instant, with a single diagnosis. She’s seen it many times. As the wife of a man whose lungs were destroyed by COVID-19, she’s also aware of the uncertainty severe illness brings, of the financial hardships, and the ongoing struggle to be heard. She’s lived it.
Read MoreMeet Doug and Susan Smith
Transplant House was a home away from home. Everyone I’ve talked to, before arriving and while here, have been so welcoming and kind! ~Susan Smith On June 21, 2013, Doug received a lung transplant that saved his life. The otherwise healthy 42-year-old had been diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and spent over a year traveling…
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