GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Couples around the world celebrate their love on Feb. 14 each year. But for Tracy Gary and Holly Werlein-Gary, it's not just Valentine's Day. It's also National Donor Day — a holiday celebrated each year, encouraging people to donate organs, blood, tissue and more.
Both of the Garys are transplant recipients, but their stories are very different.
"I was 21. I was still in college," said Holly, whose family traveled from Gaylord, Michigan to the Cleveland Clinic when she got sick.
"I hadn't been feeling well. I had kind of like flu-like symptoms, and my sister noticed my eyes were yellow. So we knew that was some something that was going to be drastic," she said.
"I actually went into sudden liver failure for unknown reasons. So I never knew I needed a transplant until I woke up with mine, which is pretty abnormal."
Holly was on the transplant list for just eight hours. Along with a new liver, she also woke up with a new mindset.
"It really made me like re-evaluate my life and be like, maybe I need to do something, either in transplant or health care, because it's very intriguing. I mean, I went from being a normal, healthy 21 year old to dying in the hospital with 20% liver function," Holly said.
Holly went on to work at a transplant center, where she met Tracy.
"My story started in 2013. I wasn't feeling good. I called my boss's wife up. She's a traveling nurse and she came to check my blood pressure," Tracy said.
"She had a portable EKG. She put it on, and she said you're going to go to the ER right now. I was having an active heart attack. I had no idea."
Tracy said he had a widow maker, a heart attack where the the left anterior descending artery is completely blocked or almost completely blocked. The doctors also informed him that he had had two previous heart attacks he didn't even know about.
The next five years were tough. Implants called LVADs acted as a safety net for Tracy. while he waited for a heart transplant. But he was temporarily taken off the transplant list because of kidney failure. Eventually, his kidneys started working again and in June 2017 he was put back on the transplant list.
"I was on the transplant list for three years. And for the last 275 or 285 days, I was at number one in the State of Michigan. I never thought this call was ever going to come," he said.
On May 5, 2018 that call came and Tracy found out he was going to get the heart he had been waiting for.
"My family and friends were there. Everybody was just happy. I mean, just ecstatic, because, I mean, it was my second chance of life. Third chance, fourth chance, whatever you want to call it. I mean, it was, it was my hope."
While he was waiting, Tracy needed someone to talk to. He thought of Holly. And by this point, she was working for another transplant clinic, so he decided to connect with her.
"I just wanted to touch base with her because they see us at our lowest point. They know what we're going through," he said.
"I called her up and said 'hey, do you want to do lunch sometime.' She said 'sure' and we met up at The Old Goat in Grand Rapids and we've been together every day pretty much since then."
Not long after Tracy received his new heart, the Garys were married. They had a Donate Life-themed wedding. The mom and daughter of Holly's liver donor attended the wedding.
"It was it was a really happy day, but we wouldn't be here without our donors. So it was just super special that they were able to be there as well," she said.
Now the Garys are working to give back. They're raising money to bring a transplant house to West Michigan. The house would give transplant recipients and their families a place to stay after procedures and during doctor visits. Other major medical cities have them, but so far there is not one in Grand Rapids.
"That needs to happen in Grand Rapids, because it's so emotionally challenging to not only have a transplant and travel that long, but to not be close to your home or feel comfortable," Holly said.
The transplant house would also offer community to transplant recipients and their families, who would have easy access to people who know what they're going through.
As of this writing, the Garys have raised $127,000 out of a $350,000 dollar goal. You can donate by visiting their website.
"We're both here still for a reason, and we need to find out why. And this is what we think is it. It's the only way we can pay it forward," Tracy said.
The Garys also want to encourage people to become an organ, tissue or blood donor so they can save lives without spending any money.
Dorrie Dil, the CEO of Gift of Life Michigan says 20 people die in the United States every day while waiting for an organ transplant. Only 58% of Michiganders are signed up to be organ donors, and one person can impact 75 lives by signing up to be on the organ donor registry.
"If you or someone in your family needed that gift, you would hope that someone who had stepped up and said yes to organ donation, and put their name in the registry," Dil said.
"That really is just an act of kindness, and to sign up in the organ donor registry so that should something happened to you, you've agreed to donate your organs and tissues for transplant, that would be really a remarkable act of love."
You can sign up to be an organ donor on the Michigan Secretary of State's website.
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