Giovanni Sapio, center, along with Lauren Stevens of Lifeline of Ohio, left, and Ashley Boyer, assistant vice president of nursing at Memorial Hospital, right, work Thursday to raise a Donate Life flag at Memorial Hospital. Lifeline of Ohio is working to raise a Donate Life flag in all 88 Ohio counties. Ohioans may declare their wish to become an organ, eye or tissue donor by registering at www.lifelineohio.org.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
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Giovanni Sapio said his daughter loves life.
“We enjoy every moment together,” Sapio said. “We are so thankful for these moments. We are so thankful to the people who made these moments possible for her.”
Sapio’s daughter Gabby was born in March of 2009, and the family believed she had typical infant jaundice. However, it eventually became clear something else was happening, and Gabby was diagnosed with a rare liver disease.
“Doctors at the time told us there is no known cause and no known cure — not something a parent wants to hear,” Sapio said.
He said doctors determined the girl would need a liver transplant.
“I kind of held my breath every time the phone rang,” Sapio said.
He said in August 2014, the family was told that call likely wouldn’t come until the next year. Weeks later, he said it came.
“We had to put our game faces on and be prepared,” Sapio said.
He said he and his wife drove to the children’s day care and said goodbye to their son, who they knew wouldn’t be with them again for weeks because the donation and recovery would take place in a hospital that wasn’t local.
Then they went to Gabby’s school.
“We had told her this great day was coming,” Sapio said. “We told her, ‘Today is the day.’ She jumped up and she was so excited.”
The father called surgery day, “the longest day of our life.” After 11 hours however, the doctor told family that Gabby’s body had accepted the new liver and was doing well.
“We are so thankful because we understand that the same day we’re celebrating life, another family was saying goodbye to a child,” Sapio said.
A six-week hospital stay came to a conclusion on Halloween 2014. Sapio said the rest of the girl’s family was not told about her release. He said Gabby dressed in a princess outfit and rang the doorbell at her grandparents’ home.
“She was the last trick-or-treater of the night,” Sapio said.
Earlier this week, Sapio, who works at Scott’s Miracle Gro, was at Memorial Hospital as part of Lifeline of Ohio’s Flags Across Ohio initiative. The program is working to raise a Donate Life flag in all 88 of Ohio’s counties in 2018. Ohio’s push is part of a nationwide celebration “honoring donors, recipients and waiting patients.”
“By inviting local government offices, schools, hospitals, BMVs, businesses and organizations to get involved with these local flag-raisings, Donate Life Ohio hopes to encourage the public to stop, pause and consider the difference they can make as a registered organ, eye and tissue donor,” said Lauren Stevens of Lifeline of Ohio.
Ashley Boyer, assistant vice president of nursing at Memorial Hospital, said in the past five years, Memorial Hospital has helped to facilitate the donation of tissue for 25 donors.
“These 25 generous heroes have given the opportunity for others to heal from accidents and injuries and have given them back their quality of life,” Boyer said.
She explained one donor has “the opportunity to heal more than 50 people.”
“That means more than 1,250 people throughout the United States will be healed, thanks to the kindness of Union County residents,” Boyer said. She added, “Sadly, there is more work to be done.”
According to Lifeline of Ohio, the national waiting list for organ transplants is rising at “an alarming rate” with nearly 115,000 people on the list. Nationwide, about 20 people die each day waiting for an organ. An Ohioan dies every 40 hours waiting for an appropriate organ.
“Our hospital is proud to bring awareness to the need for more registered donors and to celebrate with those who have received a second chance at life,” Boyer said.
Sapio encouraged families to have the discussion about organ and tissue donation before a time of crisis.
Ohioans may declare their wish to become a donor by registering online with the Ohio Donor Registry at www.lifelineohio.org. Additionally, individuals may indicate their intentions when renewing their driver’s license or by completing a Donor Registry Enrollment Form, available by calling 800-525-5667.
“To me, it is one of the easiest things to do to become a hero for someone else,” Sapio said.
He added, “the impact that some selfless person made at some horrible point in their life, meant everything to us.”