It was every parent’s nightmare.
Lanetha Guider was stopped in traffic on the Tri-State Tollway last summer while driving back from her visiting her mother so she could meet Lanetha’s 4-month-old baby, Ra’Nya.
“A guy hit the back of my car at 75 miles an hour, while we were at a standstill,” said Guider, of Markham. The first thought on her mind was Ra’Nya. “My instinct as a mother was to turn around and check my baby. I was trying to shield her.”
Unfortunately, Ra’Nya had taken the majority of the impact.
“They revived her at the scene,” Guider said. “They thought because she was so small, she would have a chance to pull through and recover. They did not know the severity of injuries to her brain.
“My daughter was on life support. They did all the tests a few times to see if there was brain activity. There was none.”
Guider made a selfless decision.
“After the hospital had done everything they could to save her, they spoke to me about taking her off life support,” Guider said. “A nurse asked me about organ donation. I didn’t know what to think. Later, someone from Gift of Hope came and spoke to me, they explained how the process works.”
In two days, Gift of Hope found recipients for Ra’Nya’s organs.
“At first I was skeptical,” Guider said. “I thought there are parents who feel hopeless waiting for a kidney or heart for their child, there is nothing they can do to save them. When I thought of that, it was a no-brainer for me.”
Ra’Nya Guider-Owens died July 21, but she gave life to others through her heart, kidneys and lungs.
‘Living on through others’
April is National Donate Life Month, designated to honor organ and tissue donors and celebrate the lives saved through the gift of donation.
Lanetha Guider has experience with both, having seen parents suffering watching their children suffer.
“I’ve worked in health care since 2003, so I know health care from both sides of the spectrum,” she said.
“Nothing can fill the void of my baby girl being gone but it makes me proud to know she is living on through others, literally.”
According to Gift of Hope, there are 108,000 people in the United States waiting for lifesaving organ transplants. While 95% of people support donation, only 58% are registered donors. One donor can save and enhance the lives of five people through organ donation and more than 25 people through the gift of tissue.
“Ra’Nya saved three people,” said her mother. “Two babies and a 27-year old.”
‘An extended family for life’
It hasn’t been a year since Ra’Nya died. Despite losing her daughter, Lanetha continues to be strong and encourage others.
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“I’m still grieving,” Guider said. “Family members going through this, you’re going to have days of anger and just want to cry, or you don’t want to eat or get up in the morning. Find a reason to go on.
“One day I was having a dark day, I was still in bed. I pulled myself up and got myself together. I went and checked the mailbox, in there was a letter from her heart recipient. When I received that letter, I got a sense of comfort and peace. I got that letter right on time.”
Gift of Hope also presented Guider with a Medal of Honor, a blanket and a teddy bear.
“Gift of Hope has been amazing, always calling to check up on me,” Guider said. “With Gift of Hope, I have an extended family for life.”
Dr. Harry Wilkins, the first African American CEO of Gift of Hope who began his new role in October, said donation partners such as Guider are essential as his organization focuses attention on the lifesaving and healing benefits of organ and tissue donation and the importance of registering as a donor.
“The true heroes of all of this are the families of organ donors,” he said.
Wilkins was a trauma surgeon for 36 years, most recently at Blessing Hospital in Quincy, where he worked with Gift of Hope staff to support organ donor families.
“As a trauma surgeon, I came across patients who unfortunately became brain-dead, eventually becoming organ donors,” said Wilkins, who has performed about 10 organ procurement surgeries. “That was my introduction into the transplant process on the donation side.”
Making it easier to save lives
Wilkins, a Chicago resident, said he’s been a registered organ donor since he first got his drivers license at age 16.
“I have important goals for Gift of Hope, the first would be to increase authorization. Everything leads to having more organs available for people on the waiting list,” he said. “Ultimately I would like to end the waiting list. They should be able to have the organs available, it all begins with the organ donors. If everyone was a registered donor, we could end the wait list.
“Every day about twenty-two people die waiting for an organ.”
Wilkins saves some thank you notes in his office, including one from a woman who received a heart transplant more than two decades ago, who wrote, “Today I have had a full life that would not have been possible without the gift of an organ donor.”
“It turns out, this was a letter from a recipient of a patient that I had 23 years ago that donated a heart,” Wilkins said. “I’ve had friends that are doctors, they keep letters like this to remind them of the impact organ donation has.”
Wilkins said the majority of those waiting for organs are suffering from kidney disease.
“Unfortunately, the diseases that lead to kidney failure, disproportionately affect communities of color,” he said. “I’m talking hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. In communities of color, these diseases affect the younger people, in their 30s and 40s. One of the things we’re also seeing in the COVID-19 tragedy is lung transplants.”
Wilkins said one of his jobs now is to clarify misconceptions about organ donation.
“The number one thing I hear the most is, once I have the organ donation designated on my drivers license, once I show up in the ER they won’t work as hard to save me,” he said. “That could not be farther from the truth. When a person comes into the emergency department, those physicians and nurses they are not thinking about getting your organs. Their goal is to get you back to health and get you out of the hospital. Myself and my colleagues mourn when our patients don’t do well.”
He also thinks its important to form community partnerships to help get the word out about the good organ donation can bring.
“My mom always told me to leave the world a better place than when you found it,” Wilkins said. “This is my way of doing that.”
Lanetha Guide said her experience with her daughter’s organ donation has “given me the extra drive and motivation” to finish her registered nursing degree at Trinity Christian College.
“Ra’Nya was so feisty, smart, animated and advanced for her age,” Guider said. “I ordered a new nursing stethoscope, and my hope is to meet with the baby who received Ra’Nya’s heart and hear her heart beating again.”
More information on organ donation is at GiftofHope.org.
Mary Compton is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.