Positivity: Thanks for the Gift of Life
Two families connected through an organ donation will meet
December 3, 2007Brenda Tetzlaff admits it’s been a difficult year, but she said it’s ending on a high note.
“What a perfect way to end the year but to spend time with the people who saved my life,” said Tetzlaff, the recipient of two organs this year.
On Saturday, Tetzlaff, 40, will meet the family who made the decision to follow through on a son’s wishes to donate his organs.
Sandy Noriega of Elgin, Ill., said her family wanted to respect her brother Luis Noriega’s wishes to donate his organs if he should die. They were forced to make that decision this spring.
Luis Noriega, 25, was beaten by students outside of a bar in DeKalb, Ill., over a drink, said Tetzlaff, who went into surgery April 16 at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison to receive a kidney and the pancreas from Luis Noriega.
Brenda Tetzlaff said she feels the organs saved her life and she wants to say thank you to the Noriegas.
“I have to meet these people. They saved my life,” she said.
The Noriegas are equally excited.
“We’re really anxious to meet her. It’s been a couple of months of writing letters back and forth,” Sandy Noriega said.
Sandy Noriega, 24, and Tetzlaff believe a lasting relationship will come out of the meeting that will be held in the Noriegas’ home in Elgin.
“We lost a brother, but we know that she’s going to be part of the family,” Sandy Noriega said.
“We’re excited and anxious and overwhelmed at this point,” Tetzlaff said. “I think this is just the beginning of a continued relationship and a lifetime friendship.”
Jason Tetzlaff will accompany his ex-wife on the trip to visit the Noriegas. The couple divorced before Brenda Tetzlaff’s kidneys began to fail. Her illness, operation and recovery, however, brought the couple back together and they plan to remarry in the near future. They currently raise their two sons together.
Jason Tetzlaff was supportive of Brenda through it all.
“It was scary, but we were so confident in the doctor,” Jason Tetzlaff said. “It was never a point of will she make it, but will it be successful.”
“I was more afraid for my family and the people who had to wait for me than for myself,” Brenda Tetzlaff said. …..
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