Locals Launch Foundation to Support Transplant Patients
Last March, John Morelli underwent double transplant surgery, receiving a heart and liver during an 18-hour procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital. Preparing for the surgery and then recovering – re-learning to eat, stand, walk and even write again – meant weeks in the hospital. It meant that his wife Stacey and sons Griffin, Tyler and Joshua spent many hours and days away from their home in East Braintree, and when they were home, everyday routines like baseball practice and making dinner became a challenge. Fortunately, support from the community poured in. A group created Friends of John Morelli that held a fundraiser prior to his surgery, and others prepared meals, created a schedule to give rides to practices and games for the Morelli boys and purchased vouchers for the family to use when visiting the hospital. Those efforts, and the experience meeting other patients’ families who did not have the same kind of support system, prompted John and Stacey to create the Transplant Foundation of New England. They launched the organization last month and have started helping their first transplant candidate, a local man named Francis Buckley who has been awaiting his second heart transplant since September at Mass General. With the assistance of a team that includes Morelli’s cardiologist, several business associates and friends, the foundation’s aim is to offer support, financial and otherwise, to members of the transplant community. This ranges from giving families gift cards to restaurants and grocery stores, to helping offset medical bills and providing transportation and childcare. Morelli, who has a management background, including a stint at The Red Cross Blood Service of New England, created a detailed plan for the foundation, including guidelines on how it will operate and a lengthy list of responsibilities for the board of directors. The vision, as outlined by Morelli on the organization’s website, is to keep operating costs at or below 25 percent. He projects first-year funding to hit $ 500,000, increasing to $ 1 million in year two and $ 2 million by year five. The foundation, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization, will partner with corporations, seek grants and vendors, and also look for individual and group donations. Anyone looking to contribute can do so at http://transplantfoundationofnewengland.org/donation.html. South End Patch
Categories: Arrests Tags: Foundation, Launch, Locals, Patients, Support, Transplant
Months After Heart Transplant, Woman Seeks To Give Back
Jane Tecce has the unique perspective of having experienced both sides of being an organ donor. Years ago after her son’s death at the age of 24, his organs were donated so that others could have a new chance at life. Now, Tecce herself is still recovering from a heart transplant that she received some 16 months ago. She also received a kidney transplant at that time. “My kids are starting to have kids now. I’m being a grammy. I can’t imagine not being here,” she said in a recent conversation with Patch.com. Tecce said that she was first diagnosed with heart disease about 12 years ago. Tecce moved to Lynnfield two years ago and grew up in Wakefield, graduating from Wakefield Memorial High School. Her family owns Santoro’s in Peabody, she reported. Her motivation to help spread the word about becoming an organ donor is not limited to just her own experiences. Tecce lost one brother, David, to heart disease when he was 51 and waiting for a heart transplant. A younger brother Jimmy, reportedly had a heart transplant in 2000 at Tufts and lived for eight years after that. “I’ve been on both ends of it. That’s what I feel is important,” she said. According to Tecce, organ donors and recipients actually interact somewhat routinely through email and letters if they wish to do so – although this typically won’t happen until a year or so after a transplant. In her own case, she met her donor’s family, who were from Rhode Island, on the one-year anniversary of the transplant, something she described as “very emotional.” Those who receive an organ transplant will face an elevated risk of infection in the months after the procedure, and Tecce recalled having some setbacks in the early going. “In the last six months, I’ve done really, really well,” she said, adding that she also hopes to return to work while also potentially doing some speaking and information tables for the New England Organ Bank. “I want to remember the people that gave me this chance,” said Tecce. To learn more about becoming an organ donor, visit the New England Organ Bank’s DonateLifeNewEngland.org website here. South End Patch