A chance encounter that changed lives happened at a baseball game.
The donor’s sister, Savannah Chavez Roesch, shared how her brother was an organ donor. “So most of you already know my brother was an organ donor,” she wrote. “A year ago we received a letter from the recipient of his heart.”
Savannah wrote back to the donor recipient even including a few photos of her brother, Donovan, “so they could put a face to his new heart.” Donors and recipients are not allowed to share any identifying information.
Not their names, ages or where they lived.
Donovan Bulger passed in 2016. His organs reportedly saved the lives of multiple people, including this man named John Sueme.
Sueme received Bulger’s heart later that year. He and Bulger’s family had only communicated via letters, since the rules did state they were not allowed to identify themselves.
But as fate would have it, both families crossed paths at the Transplant Awareness Day held at a Major League Baseball game in St Louis, Missouri.
“It’s such an intense feeling knowing you are so close to contact but really [have] no idea who they are,” Roesch wrote.
Roesch and her family all wore neon green shirts with Donovan’s face on them, to honor and remember the organ donor in their life.
“We got our group picture taken & as I’m giving my email address to the photographer to send the copy to me I hear a woman [say] ‘Are you Donovan’s family?'” Roesch wrote. “I didn’t really think much of it. I thought that it was someone that worked with him or knew him from school.”
The woman recognized the face on the family’s shirt. It was her dad who received Donovan’s heart, she explained.
“We were all in COMPLETE SHOCK & AWE!!!” Roesch said. “I think everyone in the ballpark heard our cries & shrieks of complete shock & joy!!!!”
“I think Donovan arranged us to meet this way,” Roesch wrote. “What are the chances of this happening?!?”
Roesch and the rest of the family finally met the organ recipient. It was a feeling she couldn’t describe. The two families took photos together, and then Sueme, the heart recipient, let Donovan’s family listen to their brother’s heart.
One by one they pressed their heads to the man’s chest.
Tears fell, hugs were exchanged, and even Sueme couldn’t hold back his emotions.
“To FINALLY meet him & his WONDERFUL family COMPLETELY RANDOM by chance like that was a feeling I CANNOT even begin to describe!!!! We went back & got a group picture with our new found family!!!”
The Transplant Awareness Day was presented by Washington University, Barnes-Jewish Transplant Centre and the St Louis Children’s Hospital.
The event was held to celebrate the lives of all those involved in organ donation.
John Sueme, along with his wife, Liza, daughter, Catherine, and two other friends are reported to be planning more meet ups with Roesch and her family.
Watch the heartfelt meeting in the video below!
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