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Donor families, More than 100 monarch butterflies were released to symbolize rebirth, the transformation of a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, at an emotional gathering of about 340 organ donor families and recipients.
recipients
celebrate gifts
An annual gathering unites families
Organ donations rising
with those whose lives were savedBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comAmong those at the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii's annual Donor Recognition Ceremony yesterday at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel were Eydie and Jerry Muromoto, Shiela L. Pixler, Kirk Uechi, Charlene Kekona and her former husband, James Kaaa.
Pixler, 17, and Uechi, 53, are alive today because of gifts of organs from sons of the Muromotos and Kekona and Kaaa.
Pixler and Eydie Muromoto sat with their arms entwined at yesterday's observance, sharing the spirit of Muromoto's son Keoki Nicodemus.
Keoki was killed March 7 last year, two days after his 21st birthday, when struck by a van while riding a bicycle home from work in Ewa.
One kidney went to Shiela, who had kidney problems since age 13 and was dialysis for one and a half years.
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She was in class at Campbell High School when informed a kidney was available."I was so fortunate," she said, explaining she had expected three times to get a kidney, then told she wasn't.
"I thought it was the same procedure, that I was not going to get a kidney. When I went to the hospital (St. Francis Medical Center), they said it was definite I would get a kidney. I was so excited, so happy, and crying."
There was no question about donating her son's organs, Eydie Muromoto said. He had "organ donor" stamped on the back of his state identification card and they had talked about it, she said. "I told him I was very proud of him."
Some family members asked if she was sure she wanted to donate his organs, she said. "I said: 'Yes, it's his wish. I'm not going to go back on it. It hurts, but that's what he wanted.'"
The Muromoto family, including sons Nicolas, 18, and Timmy, 15, and Keoki's girlfriend and baby (born after his death), met last October.
Eydie feels she's gained a daughter. They share the same birthday, April 5, as well as Keoki's spirit and kidney, which "started working instantly," Shiela said.
The other kidney went to a 30-year-old woman in California; his heart to a 72-year-old priest in Spokane, Wash.; and his liver to a woman who had other complications and didn't live, Eydie Muromoto said. His eyes were not donated. "They are like his trademark," she said. "Everybody knew him by his green eyes."
Charlene Kekona and James Kaaa met Kirk Uechi, recipient of their son Joshua Kaaa's liver, for the first time yesterday.
Joshua, 15, was killed July 24, 1999, in a hit-and-run accident on Maui. He was a passenger in the back seat of a car, going to the beach with three friends, when a car slammed into them from the rear and pushed them into oncoming traffic, Kekona said.
Kaaa said Joshua had seen "organ donor" on his driver's license and wanted to know it meant. After the accident, he and Kekona talked about it, he said.
"You get to the point when you realize you can't do anything," Kaaa said. "It's better to let him go and have his organs help someone else live."
Uechi said he broke an elbow playing football while growing up on Okinawa and believes he got blood tainted with hepatitis C in the operation.
He ended up running a sports car shop in Seattle and returned here when his father died of a stroke.
"I had a bad time dealing with it," he said. "I was into binge drinking. It accelerated cirrhosis of the liver."
He was in bad shape in June 1999 and put on a transplant list, he said. Thinking there would be no donor, he had a "last meeting" with his family, including his 18-year-old son, who flew here from Florida.
Joshua Kaaa died July 31, 1999. The next day, Uechi had a liver transplant. About 14 others were on the waiting list but since he was critical, he said he was chosen to receive "a beautiful gift of life."
Joshua's heart went to a man on Oahu and his kidney to a Big Island teacher, his mother said.
Kekona, who has two daughters, Natasha, 20, and Satin, 9, and a 2-year-old boy, Journey, became a certified driving instructor after Joshua's death. In classes at St. Anthony School on Maui, she tells young drivers about her son to encourage safe driving.
Kaaa left Maui yesterday for the first time their son died, he said. "I have been trying to bring him out of the house," Kekona said. "It is a very big milestone to bring him here."
"It is a touching place for me to be," Kaaa said, noting he "fell apart" when he saw a donor quilt with patches made by families remembering their loved ones.
When he first saw Uechi, he said, "All of a sudden ... I felt someone close to me was close by. If I hug him, he is about the same height as my son. We're bonded for life."
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Organ donations in Hawaii have increased significantly the past three years, particularly donors of Filipino ancestry, the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii reports. Hawaii organ donations
rising over past 3 yearsStar-Bulletin staff
Organ donors averaged about 14 per year from 1987 to 1998, with an annual average of 37 organs donated.
In 1999-2001, the average number of donors annually was 27, with an average of 68 organs donated per year.
Filipino donors rose to 24 percent from 3 percent of all organ donors, encouraged by the Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP).
The donor center and MOTTEP are members of the Hawaii Coalition on Donation, formed to save lives and improve quality of life through public awareness of organ, tissue and eye donation.
For more information about organ donations, call the center at 585-3421 or MOTTEP at 585-3419.