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 MoreWe are very lucky to have so many wonderful institutions as neighbors in University Circle. A number of our volunteers are Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) students. Elijah is a third-year undergraduate Case student double majoring in Nutritional Biochemistry and Evolutionary Biology. Elijah came to Cleveland all the way from South Carolina to study at CWRU.…
Read MoreDuring 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 MoreJennifer 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 MoreAnnette Humberson joined the Transplant House staff in March of 2020 as Transplant House’s Social Work Manager. You can read the first part of our series on social work at Transplant House here. * To protect their privacy, the names of the guests referred to in this piece have been substituted for pseudonyms. The afternoon…
Read MoreWe are very lucky to have so many wonderful institutions as neighbors in University Circle. A number of our volunteers are Case Western Reserve University students. Fred, who just completed his first year at CWRU, is interested in studying Statistics and International Studies. Fred first heard about Transplant House because of his interest in Cleveland’s…
Read MoreIzzy is a junior at Case Western Reserve studying nursing. She has been volunteering around the House since her Sophomore year. Izzy remembers that she first learned about Transplant House because she passed it on her way to campus every day as a CWRU sophomore. Curious, she looked THoC up online. “Immediately when I read…
Read MoreSix 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 MoreThis past February marked the fifth anniversary of The Temple Tifereth Israel’s involvement with Transplant House. As Transplant House grew, adding a second building of apartments in 2017 and a community and office space in 2019, and adapted to the challenges of the pandemic, the Temple’s support for our guests and for our organization has…
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