Organ Donor Families Get Rare Chance To Meet Recipients

Apr. 28 - KGO (KGO) -- When a life is lost, a life can be saved. That's the mission of the California Transplant Donor Network. The Oakland-based organization helps match organ donors with organ recipients.

And today in the East Bay, the families of about a dozen donors had a chance to meet the people who received those precious, life-saving organs.

We all receive the miraculous gift of life, at birth. Others get a second chance at life when families generously donate the vital organs of a loved one who has passed away.

Paul Young, Organ Recipient:: "My name is Paul Young. I received a liver transplant in 1988. For the past 19 years, my life has filled with gratitude."

Barbara Garris, Organ Recipient:: "My name is Barbara Garris. I received a single right lung March 22, 2002. Thank you so much."

Today in Hayward, the California Transplant Donor Network held a rare reunion for donor families and organ recipients.

For Bruce and Marsha Dyer, the meeting completes a bond already forged when they decided to donate their daughter Ashlyn's kidney and liver.

Bruce Dyer, Donor Father: "This is something that Ashlyn would have wanted. Her idea of life was to making life better for everybody else. This is a good example."

The emotion is even more pronounced for the Dyer's because Ashlyn Dyer died after a hit and run driver hit her last March while she was jogging in San Francisco's Presidio.

The driver has never been found. The Dyers took Ashlyn off life support a week after the accident and Michelle Williams now lives because of their brave decision.

Michelle Williams, Organ Recipient: "I've kind of sort of been in love with Ashlyn's parents and her family because of the heartache they had to go through in order for me to have life."

Fifty-one year-old Michelle Williams lives in Sacramento, and she lives, she says, with joy.

Michelle Williams, Organ Recipient: "My donor and myself get along really well. I've experienced nothing but joy with the transplants."

Ashlyn Dyer was only 27-years-old when she died. Her family created the Ashlyn Dyer Foundation to support traumatic brain injury research.

Last month the FBI added to the reward to find the driver who struck Ashlyn. The reward now stands at $100,000.

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