Southwest Transplant Alliance

TYLER — A 16-year-old athlete made the trek Sunday from Fort Worth to Tyler to meet the family whose son's heartbeat has been hers since Christmas Day 2005.

"It was great to meet his grandfather, his stepmom and his dad and his brother," Quaneisha Driver said after the Southwest Transplant Alliance's 15th Celebration of Giving and Living in Tyler.

Driver said the family of Hunter Cippele had shared secrets that came with the heart after it became available when the LeTourneau University student died in a fall off a ladder. The 20-year-old Longview High School graduate had signed up as an organ donor, and within two days, his heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys had been placed into four people.

A volleyball, track and basketball athlete, Driver said learning about Cippele's athletic prowess on the tennis court both at Longview High and LeTourneau was especially encouraging since it was her love of sports that had exposed the displaced coronary artery she had carried since birth. She had been on life support for more than three weeks when Cippele's heart saved her.

"They said I have a real good heart, that he was always real giving and a gentleman, and very athletic," Driver said. "We talked about some of the things — how, like, he had a sense of humor. And I've gotten a lot goofier. He was crazy for pickles, and now I have a craving for pickles. They just would like to see me doing good."

Organ recipients like Driver joined some 175 transplant advocates and donor families in the annual get-together Sunday at the Tyler Women's Building. Among the thankful recipients was Overton High School agricultural science teacher Bob Walters, who addressed the crowd during the two-hour ceremony.

Walters received a liver in May, six months after he was diagnosed with Wilson's disease, a fatal condition marked by accumulations of copper in several organs and manifested with symptoms such as progressive weakness and liver cirrhosis.

Walters, 28, received his new liver from an East Texas family, but he spoke for all the recipients.

"I want all donor families to realize how grateful and honored recipients are to be here," Walters said. "It's because of you that we are here, and it's because of you that we have another chance at life. From the bottom of my heart, from the rock bottom of my family's heart, I thank you so much."

Walters said it was bittersweet to be thanking families for a gift given through tragedy, but he described the other side of the coin as shown in his life.

"You get this feeling inside of you," he said. "You know your life has come back to you, and you know you're going to make it, and you're not going to miss that 6-year-old's ball games, and you're going to get to see your students again.

"I had no idea of how a family feels when they have to let go of someone. I am so thankful that people make those choices, that people decide to donate in order that other people might have a chance of rising up and returning to a normal life."

Kathy Swartz, who lost her 17-year-old son, Cory, to a brain aneurism in November 2003, stood next to the man who received her son's liver that same month, Rick Sheffield.

"I had never thought about organ donation before, but it's changed our lives," the mother told the crowd. "There is nothing that can help you as much as seeing that recipient living and breathing.

Sheffield described the sensation of life the new organ brought after a decade of battling hepatitis C.

"You could feel the strength and well-being inside," Sheffield said. "Life was coming back. There's no words to describe that."

To register as an organ donor, go to www.organ.org or call (800) 788-8058.