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 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…
Read More“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 MoreWe would never have known that guest Jim Szorady was making beautiful music in our community space if not for the notes. Handwritten ones at first, rather than the musical kind. Jim is undergoing CAR-T therapy at University Hospitals. As a result of the treatment, he is immunosuppressed. He and his wife, Marilyn, have been…
Read MoreWhen preparing an apartment for the arrival of a new guest, we don’t expect to find messages from those who previously stayed with us. But that is exactly what we recently found in Apartment 10 – a chain of encouragement and hope stretching across months and miles written in blue and black dry erase ink…
Read More