Steve Erickson
Steve owes more than four decades of his life to the generosity of an organ donor. In 1966 Steve was just nineteen years old and in kidney failure. Facing an organ transplant, a procedure that was still quite new, Steve says “I had about an eighty percent chance of not making it out of that operating room.”
Steve’s kidney transplant allowed him to marry his high school sweetheart, Patty, and raise two daughters. He recently learned that the donor who gave him the kidney that lasted forty years was a 29 year-old man named Thomas. Steve was honored to meet Thomas’ two sisters, Mary and Trish. When he first laid eyes upon Mary he walked over, embraced her and said “I’ve been waiting to give you a hug for 43 years.”
In 2005 Steve learned he would need a heart transplant due to a congenital problem that had surfaced. After his heart transplant, Steve was in need of another kidney transplant to replace the one he received from Thomas. This time, Steve’s twin sister Susie provided the perfectly matched kidney.
Steve’s life is a testament to the success of organ donation. “I wouldn’t have had this life without my kidney transplant.”