Local woman donates kidney to honor her late son
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Laura Gillum meets Brian Cox of Aliquippa Friday for the first time. Gillum, of Canonsburg, donated a kidney to Cox on March 7 at Allegheny General Hospital. Cox is holding Gillum’s 3-month-old daughter, Zoe.
Karen Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Laura Gillum and her daughter, Zoe, 3 months, stand beside a blanket dedicated to organ donors. Laura’s son, Dean, is shown on the blanket. Gillum and her husband, Paul, are adopting Zoe.
When Laura and Paul Gillum’s son, Dean, died in a drowning accident in the family’s backyard swimming pool in 2015, the Canonsburg couple donated his organs.
Dean’s organs – his heart, liver and kidneys – saved the lives of three people, including a 4-year-old South Carolina boy, and his corneas were donated for medical research.
On March 7, Laura, inspired by her son’s gift of life to others, gave life herself when she donated her left kidney to a 39-year-old Aliquippa man.
On Friday, Laura met Brian Cox, a father of two teenage daughters, who had been on dialysis for about three years and needed a kidney transplant
“I have seen the impact that organ donation has on people’s lives,” said Laura. “If you can save another person’s life, you should. I had two (kidneys). I only needed one.”
Seated next to Gillum and surrounded by his transplant team in a classroom at Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Cox, who owns Legends Barber Shop in Aliquippa, recounted his excruciating wait on the transplant list.
A diabetic, Cox went into complete kidney failure on Valentine’s Day 2016.
For nearly three years, Cox underwent dialysis three days a week, and in September 2018 he was placed on the national waiting list for a kidney transplant.
But there was a complication. Cox has a rare blood type, AB positive, and finding a compatible donor proved difficult.
Enter Laura Gillum.
About a year ago, Gillum, whose blood type also is AB positive, decided to become an altruistic donor, but no paired kidney match was found in the national database.
The kidney database at Allegheny General Hospital, however, did turn up a match: Cox.
Said Dr. Holly Chapman, transplant coordinator with Allegheny General Hospital’s Transplant Institute, “It was just an incredible match that was made. I find (Laura) incredible as a person, and we worked with her extensively over the year until we found a match.”
On Feb. 21, Cox received the phone call he had been waiting for.
“They told me they had a kidney, and I broke down crying,” said Cox. “I’m truly blessed. (Laura) is an amazing person. There are no words that can explain how much this means to me. She saved my life.”
Because of Gillum, Cox said, he will be able to watch his daughter, Bria, graduate from Aliquippa High School this spring and attend Norfolk State University in Virginia.
For Laura, 46, becoming an altruistic donor was another step in the journey she has been on since Dean, nicknamed “Burrito,” died.
She and Paul started a nonprofit, Breathing for Burrito, which offers free CPR classes in the community, and she has served as a spokeswoman for Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE).
They have struck up a friendship with the family of Lennon Cureton, the little boy in whom their son’s heart beats.
And, Laura and Paul are parents to a 3-month-old girl, Zoe, who they are in the process of adopting.
In fact, Laura said, she found out she was a match for Cox a little more than a month after she and Paul brought Zoe home.
Laura said some people encouraged her to delay the transplant surgery, but she wouldn’t consider it.
“You can work your life around a lot of different obstacles. It doesn’t matter what obstacle comes up, you can figure out a way,” said Laura, who credits family and friends for helping care for Zoe while she recuperated following surgery. “When people said I shouldn’t do it, I said, if I don’t give my kidney, this person could die. Why would I not do it, or postpone it, or reschedule it? I’m saving someone’s life, and you can’t put a price tag on someone’s life.”
Cox did not know until he met Laura in person Friday that she had lost a son and had become an altruistic donor in honor of Dean’s life.
Both Laura and Cox hope sharing their stories helps raise awareness about organ donation.
“My son was amazing. At 23 months, he saved three people’s lives,” said Gillum. “Even though he’s gone, I try to do something every day to make him proud of me.”
April is National Donate Life Month. According to CORE, close to 114,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ transplant, including 2,500 in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At least 20 will die each day without receiving the transplant, and someone is added to the transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. For additional information on CORE and becoming an organ donor, visit www.core.org. For information about Breathing for Burrito, visit Breathing-for-Burrito.org.