Gillums to meet boy who received son’s heart
The parents of Dean “Burrito” Gillum, who died Aug. 2, 2015, after falling into a backyard swimming pool at his Canonsburg home, will meet the 2-year-old South Carolina boy who received Dean’s heart, and the boy’s parents this week.
The meeting between Paul and Laura Gillum, who donated the organs of their 23-month-old son after he died, and Allen and Jessica Cureton, and their son, Lennon, will take place on The Real, a syndicated television show taped in Los Angeles.
The episode will be aired on channel 4 at 1:07 a.m. Friday.
“We are excited about meeting the whole family, but it’s going to be really hard. I don’t know how we’ll feel,” said Laura Gillum. “We’ve talked to a lot of donor families and recipients that we’ve met through CORE, and every one of them has felt differently about their experience. We need to do this to come full circle.”
Lennon, who was 6 months old when he underwent the heart transplant Aug. 8, 2015, was born with dilated cardiomyopathy.
His heart was functioning at just 13 percent and he was in end-stage heart failure.
In December 2015, Laura Gillum wrote a letter to the Curetons and the other recipients of Dean’s organs, which CORE delivered to the families without revealing their identities to the Gillums.
Jessica Cureton responded to Laura’s letter and mentioned a Facebook page she started to update family and friends about Lennon’s condition.
Laura conducted a Facebook search and ran across the page, and Paul Gillum reached out to Jessica.
Since then, the families have kept in touch regularly, but have not met in person.
“We expect that there’s going to be a lot of emotion. We’ve been looking forward to this moment, but I’m not sure how it’s going to his us,” Laura Gillum said.