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Games celebrate 2nd chances
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TRANSPLANT GAME PARTICIPANT: Russell D. Beatty Sr., center, who has a new heart, will be in Pittsburgh this weekend to compete in the U.S. Transplant Games, an Olympic-style event for people with organ transplants. With him is his wife Ruth, and his grandson, Travis Beatty, who trains his grandfather in the shot put.
It is not about the medals. It is a celebration of life.
POLAND — Like athletes all over the world preparing for the Olympic Games next month, organ transplant athletes have been getting ready for their own Olympic-style event, the National Kidney Foundation’s U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh this weekend.
Heart and kidney transplant recipients Russell D. Beatty and Nick Carson, both of Poland, are members of Team Ohio and will participate in the event Friday through Wednesday at the David Lawrence Convention Center on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.
Other area Team Ohio members are: Michael Binder of McDonald, Fred Girscht of Salem, George Landis of New Springfield, Rob Mehno of Salem, and Eric Runnion of Jefferson. Two athletes in Mercer County, Aaron Amon and Carl Patrizi, and one in Lawrence County, Michael Natale, will compete as members of Team Pittsburgh.
The U.S. Transplant Games is a four-day, Olympic-style competition in which about 1,300 transplant recipients are scheduled to compete in track and field, swimming, cycling, bowling, golf, team basketball and volleyball and other events in various age categories.
But it is not mainly about the competition or the medals, said Carson, 58, who has a fist full of medals for swimming and cycling from U.S. Games in Minneapolis and Louisville, respectively, the Australian Games and the World Games in London, Ontario.
“It’s about the celebration of life. We applaud the last-place finisher louder than the first. It’s if you finish. It means you are alive and participating and strong-willed,” Carson said.
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FISTFUL OF MEDALS: Nick Carson of Poland, a dual kidney transplant recipient, shows off the medals he has won in swimming and cycling events at U.S>, World and Australian Transplant Games, including gold he won swimming the butterfly at the World Games in London, Ontario. He will attend this weekend's U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh, but will not compete for health reasons.
The purposes of the games are to show people there is life after transplant surgery and to make people aware of the need for organ donors, said Beatty, 77, who competes in the softball throw and shot put event.
“Donors are the real heroes. Without a donor, I wouldn’t be here,” he added.
In fact, even with a donor, Beatty nearly was not here.
Initially, Beatty, an architect and owner of Russell D. Beatty and Associates, did not want a heart transplant. He had endured heart problems for many years, and he was adamant about not having a transplant because of the poor quality of life his sister experienced after her heart transplant.
Fortunately for Beatty, of Duncan Drive, he was overruled by his wife, Ruth, and he was placed on a machine that helped his heart function until a replacement heart became available.
Beatty had triple bypass surgery in 1981 at St. Elizabeth Health Center and five bypasses at the Cleveland Clinic in 1995, but he suffered a heart attack on the operating table right after the operation.
“We were told we had 72 hours to decide whether to put him on the [heart] machine or pull the plug,” Mrs. Beatty said.
She opted for the machine, but even then it was a close call.
Doctors told her on a Thursday morning her husband probably would not live through the weekend if he didn’t get a heart. That night, a heart from a 51-year-old man killed in a traffic crash in Cincinnati became available, and the transplant was done Oct. 6, 1995, at the Cleveland Clinic.
“Hindsight is 20-20,” said Beatty, who is still going strong 12 years later and has had a chance to see four more of his 12 grandchildren grow, something he would have missed had the plug been pulled.
Carson, who was born Dec. 23, 1950, looks upon May 1, 2003, the day he received two kidneys from a female cadaver, as the beginning of his second life.
He had kidney disease, brought on by complications from diabetes and high blood pressure, and had been on dialysis for some time.
“You live, but being on dialysis is a miserable existence. You do dialysis, sleep, eat and then do it all over again. That’s all I did. I was barely alive,” Carson said.
He has had some other medical problems since his transplant, and now has pneumonia, which will keep him from competing this weekend.
“Those are minor issues. The real issue is I am alive. If I hadn’t had the transplant, I would not have gotten to see my children grow up,” said Carson, former owner of City Asphalt and Paving, a business started by his grandfather, Calvin Milarr, in 1927.
Despite being unable to compete, Carson said he is going to the games to be a part of the event and cheer for the participants.
Carson, of Christopher Drive, was born in Youngstown, grew up in Boardman and graduated in 1969 from Kiski Prep School in Saltsburg, Pa., where he was a member of the swim team. He and his wife, the former Ingrid Lundquist, who also grew up in Boardman, have two daughters, Lindgren, 19, and Britta, 15. He also has a son from a previous marriage, Atty. Dylan Carson of Los Angeles.
Beatty and his wife, the former Ruth Hill, both grew up in Struthers, and graduated from Struthers High School in 1948 and 1950, respectively. Members of Struthers Presbyterian Church, they have three children: Russell Jr. of New Springfield, who is Poland Village police chief; Randall of Lowellville; Richard of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; and Ruth Ann Raseta of Struthers. They also have 12 grandchildren, including Travis Beatty, a ninth-grader at Lowellville High School, who coaches his grandfather in the shot put.
“I just show him fundamentals and technique and how not to hurt himself,” said Travis, who participated in the shot put event at Lowellville.
Both men wrote letters of thanks to their donor families through LifeBanc, the designated organ procurement organization for the area, but did not receive replies.
“I told them how much I appreciated the second chance at life that they gave me, the chance to watch my children grow up. I promised them I’d never take a day of my life for granted,” Carson said.
“It’s hard to know what to write. ‘Thank you’ doesn’t seem enough. I guess all we can do is take care of the heart and be productive citizens,” Beatty said.
Both men urged people to become organ donors. There are so many waiting for organs and dying while they wait, they said.
“When we talk to donors, they say they get satisfaction in knowing that their loved ones are living on in someone else,” Beatty said.
alcorn@vindy.com