Ashley Gardner/ Texarkana Gazette

Forty-eight hours may not seem to be a long time. But it was just enough time for a Texarkana woman who was facing an immediate medical crisis.

Doctors told Jean Hall she had 48 hours to live if she didn't get the liver transplant she so desperately needed. Jean was fortunate. Not only did she get a liver, but also a second chance at life.

"When they tell you that you need an organ, it's a life or death situation.

You really don't want to believe it," said Hall. "For about five years I fought it and thought I would beat it. But then it came down to making a decision and you knew that someone would have to die so that you could live.

"It was an emotional trip," Hall said. "But I can't say enough about organ
donation. I've gotten 12 good years."

Not only was Hall physically saved because of her organ transplant, she believes she was spiritually saved, too.

"At the time of my liver transplant, I wasn't a Christian. I knew that I needed God in my life, but I didn't know how to go about finding God," she recalls. "I put it off and put it off and put it off."

As it turned out, a minister went to her hospital room just before the transplant. He asked Jean if she wanted him to pray for her. She refused.

"But after the surgery, laying there in that hospital bed with my hands and my feet tied because I wouldn't quit pulling my tubes out, I found God,"

Hall said. "I was saved and baptized with stitches in my belly."

Jean gets emotional when she talks about this transformation in her life.

"Somebody gave me not only a chance at physical life, but spiritual life, too."

Hall's transplant took place on Aug. 15, 1992, and she is thankful for the good health she's enjoyed since that time.

"I have probably had the best luck with my health than any transplant patient I know. I've been able to keep my weight down to a reasonable level," she said. "I did have a rejection episode five years out. My doctor put me in the hospital for six days to give me medication."

Jean went home from the hospital and has been doing fine since.

"I can do most things that I could do before, but I have to do them at a slower pace now. I have to watch what I eat a little closer and make sure I exercise," she said.

She has never talked to her donor's family, although at one time she did try to contact them through the transplant agency.

"I wrote my donor's family two letters and a poem. Gift of Life was the name of the poem and it was the way God gave to me to say, 'Thank you.'"

The family never contacted Hall back.

Organ donation is an issue that receives increasing awareness as advances in medicine make the surgery a more routine operation than it has been in the past.

In Texarkana, organ donation has increased more than 100 percent from 2002 to 2003, according to data released by the Southwest Transplant Alliance.

"People are becoming more aware is one factor," said Pam Silvestri of the Southwest Transplant Alliance. "But another thing is that medical professionals in hospitals are focusing more on organ donation. Hospitals are calling us when they have a potential donor, more often than they used to, and we're giving more families the option to donate."

Silvestri said in the past, doctors and nurses were the ones who approached family members about the possibility of organ donation.

"When they approach the family about organ donation, consent rates are fairly low. Our recommendation is to call the organ donation agency and we'll send someone out who is specially trained in this area."

Obviously, organ donation is a choice family members hope they never have to face. But for people who would choose to be organ donors if the unthinkable happens, communicating their wishes to their families is a necessary step on the road to organ donation.

"If a family knows that the person wanted to be an organ donor, it's a simple decision. If they don't know, we ask them several questions to help them figure out what the person would want," Silvestri said. "We walk into these situations balancing the needs of two things and that is the needs of the grieving family but we also think of those waiting on the transplant list in need of an organ."

She said the goal is to get consent in a way that honors the family in crisis.

"April is donor awareness month, but really and truly every day is donor awareness day because this message is important every day of the year," Silvestri said.

Hall will hold a "Transplant Reunion" for organ recipients in the Texarkana area at 2 p.m. April 26. For more information call 903-832-4476