Heroes Among Us
Ultimate Gift
Local 720 member's quick recovery gives donor program a boost.
Dane County, Wis.
Probate clerk Gretchen Lowe gave her brother the ultimate gift last Christmas: She promised him one of her kidneys.
A member of AFSCME Local 720 (Council 40), Lowe delivered on that promise in January at University Hospital in Madison, and brother Samuel Knickerbocker has a new lease on life.
Lowe’s brother, 68, had been ill for several years. Because he was not on dialysis, he did not qualify to be on the list for organ donation, she noted. Still, his kidneys continued to fail, and doctors said time was running out.
While the two had not actively discussed a transplant, the subject surfaced at a family picnic last summer. Lowe mentioned in passing that she was the same blood type (B-positive) as her brother. At a family wedding soon after, Sam asked almost casually, “So, would you be willing to give me one of your kidneys?” She said “yes” on the spot.
Her husband of 40 years, Darold (“Dode”), a member of Dane County’s Board of Supervisors, and the rest of her family were supportive, though they at first were concerned about the surgery.
But they needn’t have worried. While recovery from kidney donation can take 6 to 8 weeks, Lowe, who’s an avid walker (generally, about 20 miles per week), was back to work in four. She even felt well enough to walk 10 kilometers in the March of Dimes walk in April.
She got “terrific” support from her fellow Local 720 members, she reports. Both Lowes have been active in the union for more than 20 years, Dode as a former staff representative (now treasurer of the state retirees’ chapter) and Gretchen having held several offices in the local. The Council 40 Women’s Committee honored her as Member of the Year in April.
As for Sam, he’s doing well, despite having to take more than 40 anti-rejection pills daily. (While the siblings had matching blood types, doctors found they did not match on six antigens that would have made them more compatible donors.)
The experience made Lowe a strong advocate for organ donation. She muses that it wasn’t until after her surgery that she signed a donor card — for the first time in her life. “I feel honored that I was able to do something like that. I could be in that same spot someday.”
Guardian Angel
Crossing guard who saved student "just doing my job."
Queens, NY
The students at P.S. 150 in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens know three things about crossing guard Joan Gasparro: She’s at her post in any kind of weather, she’ll correct them if they sass her, and she’ll never, ever let them be in harm’s way.
Gasparro, a member of Local 372 (D.C. 37), proved it April 15 when she pushed a third grade boy out of the path of an oncoming car and herself was struck by the vehicle. The force was enough to throw her five feet into the air. (“Could you imagine what that would have done to a little kid?”)
Gasparro was taken to a local hospital for X-rays, which were inconclusive. A follow-up X-ray revealed she had a cracked kneecap. She hopes to be back at her post when the new school year starts in September, paired at the intersection of 41st Street and 43rd Avenue with her long-time partner, MaryAnn Gudonis, another member of the local.
Students and teachers at the elementary school showered her with cards and flowers, and the police officers of the 108th Precinct presented her with a plaque. But Gasparro is modest about her role in the accident, her first in seven years at her post. “To tell you the truth, I don’t like all the fuss. I was just doing my job.”
The student and the driver, who later said he’d been blinded by the sun, both escaped injury in the incident. Gasparro, who has three sons of her own, jokingly related that the first thought that went through her mind after the accident was about the impending birth of her newest grandchild. “I thought, if I can’t get over to see that baby, I’ll kill that [driver]!”
D.C. 37, in the meantime, has been asking the city to add crossing guards to work the summer months, when school intersections are unprotected. A large number of city schools conduct meals programs and tutoring programs during the summer that draw area youngsters.
By Chris Dodd
