In death, Canfield teen saves 4

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Dan Gromada Jr., 19, died in a motorcycle accident — but his organs saved the lives of four others.

Dan was headed to a friend’s house that Wednesday afternoon in late June 2004 when he struck a tractor on state Route 46 at Shields Road while trying to pass it. He was on life support in St. Elizabeth Health Center for two days.

His parents, Dan Sr. and Elaine Gromada of Canfield, both many years ago had registered to be organ donors, but they didn’t know their son had.

They learned it when an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper gave them his driver’s license after the accident.

“That’s what impressed us so much about Dan, that at age 16 he would think that he wanted to be an organ donor,” Gromada said.

There’s been a national push to increase the number of people on the national donor registry.

There are nearly 97,000 people across the country awaiting organ transplants.

LifeBanc, an organ procurement organization that focuses on the 20 counties that comprise Northeast Ohio, is part of the effort to increase donors.

There’s some headway locally.

9 donors at St. E’s

Through July, St. Elizabeth Health Center recovered organs from nine donors — the most of any Northeast Ohio hospital, said Stephanie Jansky, a LifeBanc spokeswoman.

“As a Level 1 trauma center, we receive the most seriously injured patients,” said Tina Creighton, a St. E’s spokeswoman.

A Level 1 center is a regional facility that can provide care for every aspect of injury, hospital officials have said.

As a trauma center, the hospital sees a high concentration of potential donors, said Anne Moss, St. E’s trauma program director.

LifeBanc’s efforts to increase the donor registry includes media campaigns and working with driver’s license centers.

Though Ohio’s rate of registered donors is about 50 percent of licensed drivers, Mahoning, Cuyahoga and Trumbull’s rate is about 44 percent.

“We’re trying to get that at least to 50 percent,” LifeBanc’s Jansky said.

Although Gromada Sr. survived a rare bone cancer in 1971, he and his wife never talked with their son about organ donation and transplant. But upon learning his wish to be an organ donor, Dan’s parents didn’t hesitate.

LifeBanc worked with the family, helped recover the organs and kept them posted regarding the gender and ages of the recipients.

Dan’s pancreas, heart, liver and both kidneys were transplanted into four people — one woman received one kidney and the pancreas — on the organ transplant waiting list.

“Dan’s liver went to a 9-year-old boy,” Gromada said.

The boy was near death before the transplant.

What father does

Though the pain of losing his son remains sharp, knowing that his organs helped save the lives of four others provides Gromada some solace.

He now works for LifeBanc, attending workshops and appearances, telling Dan’s story and explaining the importance of organ donation.

“I always start out saying, ‘Today, you’re going to meet an angel,’” Gromada said.

Besides indicating a wish to become an organ donor through the license bureau, individuals may do so through a living will or an online donor registry such as www.lifebanc.org.

The waiting list for organ donations in Northeast Ohio is about 1,600 people and 1,000 of those await kidney transplants, Jansky said.

“A lot of kidney disease is genetic and runs in families,” she said, so it’s less likely that a family member would be a potential donor.

That mirrors the national trend. Of the nearly 97,000 people on the transplant waiting list, 77,000 of them need a kidney.

For organs to be recovered from a potential donor, the donor must be declared brain dead. The death may be caused by car or motorcycle accident, stroke, aneurysm, drowning or some other accident or injury.

During the last several months of Dan’s life, he and his father met for regular workouts in the weight room at Canfield High School.

“Those were some of the best times with him,” Gromada said.

He described his son as a young man with a big heart who always looked out for the underdog.

Dan will be memorialized on a float promoting organ donation in the Tournament of Roses Parade in January. His picture will be designed in flowers on the outside of one of four hot air balloons on the organization’s float.

“That’s a real honor for us,” Gromada said.