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My name is Clint Burns.
I'm a nurse here at Johns Hopkins.
And I had a liver transplant 20 years ago.
I was born with a rare liver disease, and I grew up here at
John Hopkins National Institute of Health, the Mayo Clinic.
I would intermittently get sick on and off.
I got sick at age two.
They did some explanatory surgeries,
thought it was liver cancer.
I got sick at age 6, at age 11, and each time I would get sick I
would get symptoms of jaundice, itching really bad and
kind of starvation symptoms, was unable to eat.
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At age 15 I got some severe pancreatitis and
I had to get fed through my vein for a few months and
spend a lot of time at Johns Hopkins.
And at age 17 I was evaluated for a liver transplant.
They turned me down for a liver at that time.
They said we're gonna wait a little while,
try a few other things.
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I came back here to Johns Hopkins at age 21.
At that time all my symptoms returned and they were chronic.
I repeated 9th grade, got through 11th grade with tutors.
And at age 21, when the symptoms came back and didn't go away,
they did plasmaphoresis on me once a week for four years,
which was a sort of dialysis for my liver.
At age 24 then they re-evaluated me for a transplant and
at age 24 I was put on the transplant list.
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At this time I wasn't able to go to school,
I wasn't able to raise a family, I was terminally ill.
I had really no chance of survival at this point.
I was kind of at the end of my rope.
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Deep down, being on the transplant list there was always
that glimmer of hope where someone may say yes to donation.
When they were asked, they would say yes.
At age 25, I got a call early in the morning around 7 in
the morning and, at that time, we had beepers,
I don't think they exist anymore.
But my beeper had gone off, and I looked at the beeper, and
it was Johns Hopkins Hospital.
And Cindy had said, Clint, we have a liver available for you.
It was such a relief.
Whether I lived or died, it was just a relief to have that call.
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I was very fortunate, the surgery went really well.
I was in the ICU for about 24 hours and went to the floor.
Immediately I felt better.
The jaundice went away within 12 to 24 hours.
I could feel my energy level come back almost immediately.
I felt like I was hungry.
I wasn't itching anymore,
which was really the most severe symptom of my liver disease.
And it was an amazing transformation,
it was immediate health, and it was a cure, 100%.
I went from being terminally ill to being cured at that time.
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My first thought was with my donor family.
I really wanted to write them and
let them know how grateful I was for this life saving gift.
It was a very difficult letter to write.
I knew somebody had to die in order for me to live.
So, I wrote the letter many times, five or six times,
and the words definitely don't flow.
It's something, you write the words, and you think,
am I telling too much information, not enough?
And so, the letter, the final letter I wrote was I think,
maybe five pages shorter than the first, but
it was very simple.
And just my gratitude, saying thank you.
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Dear Clint, my daughters and
I received your letter with great joy and thanksgiving.
How wonderful to hear, after all this time, that our
gift has made such a positive difference in so many lives.
We have healed,
as I believe we all must do, to go on with our lives.
And that time of shock and confusion and
overwhelming feeling that I experienced was one that
something good has to come from this tragedy.
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When they got my letter and I finally was so honored
to be able to meet them and I was sitting across from Linda.
Linda ultimately said Clint, and really it changed how I viewed
donation completely and donor families.
And I said Linda it was a hard letter for me to write.
I didn't want to cause you any grief or any more pain.
She said Clint, as incredible as this gift is for
you, imagine what it means for me to have met you.
It was a wonderful moment for me to be able to
know that I wasn't causing her any more grief, that she was so
thankful to be able to meet me and
know that her husband was able to help so many people.
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