Youth who received a new heart encourages people to be donors
The human side of organ donation
When he was 7, Luke Ball spent Christmas in the hospital hoping for a new heart.
Now 13, Luke plays three sports and recently volunteered to tell his story as part of the “The Human Side of Donation Campaign,” through Donate Life PA. The idea is to put names, places and stories — like that of the Ball family of Cranberry — to organ donation.
There are nearly 8,000 people in Pennsylvania on a waiting list to receive a life-saving transplant, said Colleen Sullivan, the Center for Organ Recovery and Education director of communications.
Luke, joined by his parents, youngest brother and Ms. Sullivan, told his story for media following a soccer camp Friday at the McKinney Soccer Complex North Park in Pine.
In November 2010, Luke’s name was added to the transplant list after years of heart complications that started before he was born. At the 20week ultrasound for her third child, Stacie Ball found out that her son was missing one of his four heart chambers.
Luke had his first heart surgery four weeks after he was born, and two more before his second birthday. Mrs. Ball said she would have to watch to make sure her baby wasn’t turning blue.
“He grew up a little bit slower and he moved a little bit slower than my other kids,” she said of Luke.
When he was about 3 years old, doctors in Portland, Ore. — where the Balls lived at the time — said Luke would eventually need a heart transplant,
10 minutes in the U.S., a new name is added to the list of those in need of lifesaving organs, and every 18 hours one person on that list dies without the organ he or she needed. She said more lives can be saved if more people register to be organ donors, adding that only 40 percent of the drivers in Pennsylvania have a donor designation on their license.
Registration, which takes less than a minute, can be done at donatelifepa.org/register, she said.
Ms. Sullivan debunked some of the most common myths that keep people from registering, including fears that they won’t receive the proper care once doctors see they’re a donor, or that people deem themselves too old or too sick. She said donation is only considered once every life-saving effort has been made and no more can be done, and that every organ is thoroughly evaluated before a match is made.
Luke’s match was a 25year-old woman from New York named Noel, his mother said.
“I am very grateful for Noel checking the organ donation box,” Luke said, calling her a hero. “You should sign up because you have the chance to save a life and become a hero to that kid.”
Now, more than seven years after his transplant, Luke is 5 feet, 6 inches tall and plays soccer, baseball and basketball.
And instead of his parents running him around the bases as they did when he played T-ball before his transplant, he’s able to keep up with his teammates and his brothers.
The youngest of the four Ball children, Nate, 11, said he remembers being so happy the day his brother came home from the hospital.
“It feels great to know … after all the stuff that he’s gone through that he’s safe and home and he’s good,” he said.
Nate said he remembers playing the board game Chutes and Ladders in the hospital with Luke when he was sick. On Friday, the two finished up a soccer camp together.
“It’s an amazing experience that I get to live through my childhood and have great times with my family and friends,” he said.