The fight for survival | Teen Ink

The fight for survival

December 21, 2008
By Jackiepurplerocks GOLD, Houston, Texas
Jackiepurplerocks GOLD, Houston, Texas
13 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Life is never a straight road that has no bumps in it. It is not a place of perfection. You can always succeed but not without falling first. It is a fight for survival.

The birth of a first child is always one of the happiest moments of a parent’s life. But sometimes that happiness can turn a little sour and a parents worst nightmares can come true .Most parents when expecting a child only want it to be healthy . But sometimes ,like in the case of my older brother, that wish doesn’t come true. My Brother at the age of three years old lost his kidneys and had to go to Dialysis , the procedure of removing the waste from the body of a patient whose kidneys do not work. He eventually got a transplant but lost it 4 years later . The average life span of a kideny transplant is about nine years.

The life of a person without a vital organ is a hard one. It is not only hard for the person without the organ it is also hard for the whole family. I can remember being only four years old and having to to stay with relatives while my brother was in the hospital. every time it was a different relative. My mother and father have heard things that no parent would want to hear come out of a doctor’s mouth. My brother is trying to live his life to the fullest but it is hard when a shadow follows you everywhere. He can’t even go to school like a normal child. His life depends on a machine , we can’t go on a vacation because he would have to go to dialysis where we would go and that would ruin the vacation.

I have seen many other cases , each different , but at the same time similar to my brother’s . people who have had a normal life and then have had them taken away. Kidneys are the most common organ that is needed but livers,hearts, lungs, pancreas, and intestines are also needed.. The number of people waiting for a organ in the united states of america is 99,886. That is a number that myself and many others want to see decrease in years to come. My family and myself have waited for my brother to get a second transplant for the past four almost five years , but no such luck. It is very difficult to get a second one considering that there isn’t that many to give in the first place and in the second place ,the older you get the harder it is to get another one.

It is a fustrating life but my brother has survived all this time because we all have a tiny spark of hope left in our hearts. My brother and many others with cases similar to him are the warriors of life , some are young, some are old, some are weak ,and some are strong but no matter what, they fight for their lives every day. They are the warriors of life who fight for survival.

I know that many people are against organ dontation but in reality you can bury your loved one without their organs or ask for yourself to be bury without them. They can serve a greater purpose in life . They can help a family be whole again , a person to have a normal life again. You can also donate blood to help. My brother has already had 10 blood transfusions at the age of 15. Oh and one of the best thing you can do is to donate money and support the make a wish foundation. They gave my brother and my family the best vacation to Florida when we thought we were going to lose my brother. On their national website their mission statement is “We grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.” help them help children who face death in the eye every single day. People die from not getting an organ in time. My family and myself have known children who have died connected on the machine. So please if you can, help the warriors of life. Also know this, They are not alone we will be there helping them fight for the victory in the fight for survival.

The author's comments:
I wrote this to show readers how the life of someone without a vital organ can be, and to promote organ donation

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This article has 2 comments.


on Mar. 18 2009 at 12:59 am
TangledThoughts BRONZE, Upland, California
2 articles 0 photos 11 comments
I'm all for it, theirs probably a good reason we have to organs, honestly two is overrated ;)

on Feb. 3 2009 at 3:49 pm
good article. i fully support organ donation too. i hope more and more people read your article. keep writing.