Posted by Carolyn Duncan at 05/09/2001 6:00 PM EST
Student on team #495, The Pack, from Jamestown High School and VBEP/Raytheon/Saic.
In Reply to: Please consider this
Posted by michael bastoni on 05/08/2001 10:04 PM EST:
I only hope that other people have been told what I have thought my whole life, God never gives us more than we can handle. This is just a trial in life that I have faith EVERYONE will pull through.
Much love,
Carolyn
: This is a story of hope and science...and it is a request for your thoughts, attention and generous action.
:
: Please let us tell you about our friend Kurt Giessler.
: Kurt is 20 years old with dark sparkling eyes, a razor wit and a side-splitting sense of humor. He’s smart and self-confident, handsome and hard-working.
: Right now he should be looking forward to celebrating his 21st birthday with his friends and family here at home in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He should be spending his time thinking about his senior year at Carnegie Melon University and the future he’s long dreamed of as a robotic engineer. Maybe designing and building the robot that discovers life on another planet for NASA. Maybe inventing the piece of medical equipment that will someday save your life.
: Instead we’re asking you to help save his.
: Our friend Kurt is in desperate need of a heart-lung transplant.
: His name is first on the Duke University Medical Center transplant list. But every 12 minutes across the country a new name is added to the national transplant waiting list. And everyday 15 more people die while waiting for a donor.
: The power to change those statistics for the 75,000 people in the United States alone who are in need of a transplant lies with you and every one like you who has not yet sat down and talked honestly and openly with their family about donating their organs.
: Kurt has struggled with heart disease and lung disease all his life. Kurt has never complained. He’s never wanted his friends or family to worry. He’s never asked for any special concern or consideration. But now his days may be numbered and the clock is ticking off the time left for a young man who would have – WHO WILL - make a difference in our world.
: Kurt was a four year member of the Plymouth North/Boston Edison FIRST robotics team, a program founded by Dean Kamen, inventor of “IT”. In his junior and senior years he drove the team’s robot in competition. If you are a member of or an alumni of a FIRST team you may remember Kurt. Somewhere in your scrapbook you may have photos of Kurt. Kurt Giessler is a gifted individual. But right now he’s in need of your gift.
: None of us who love Kurt wishes the pain we are feeling today on anyone else. But somewhere right this minute there is a family in the throws of a life altering tragedy. They’ve lost a loved one and may not even stop to think that their loss could provide the last hope for someone else. Talk to your family. Talk to your friends. Talk to the people at work or at school. Tell them that every hospital has a procurement coordinator you should ask to speak with in a time of tragedy to draw a chance at new life from the shadow of death.
: And if you should be faced with such a decision yourself in the next short while, PLEASE remember our friend Kurt and designate him, Kurt E. Giessler, as the first to be tested as your organ donation recipient.
: For more information on organ donations contact: National Coalition on Donors, 804-330-8620, e-mail
coalition@unos.org
:
: This letter was penned by a woman whose daughter is one of Kurt's best friends.
: Kurt was one of my finest students, one of my most cherished young friends. He has given me many great gifts, I pray that he gets the gifts he so rightly deserves...
: Hundreds of Kurts friends are reaching out wherever they can to share this message....TV, radio, Political and community organizations at the local and state levels have been mobilized, and are responding by helping to get this message out....Please share the story of the need and the importance of organ donorship.
: Advances in the science of transplant surgery depends on the gift of organs, tissue and fluids....Right now this kid's life depends on these gifts.
: Thank you so much
: Michael Bastoni