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Carrying on a giving spirit, Team Sophia will join Gift of Life event
LIBERTY
Team Sophia will participate in Lifebanc’s annual Gift of Life Walk and Run on Saturday in Cleveland to celebrate the legacy of Sophia Slifka, whose heart unexpectedly stopped beating the morning of her scheduled birth May 29, 2012.
The Slifkas – Deanna and Joe of Liberty – devastated by the horrific end to what had been a perfect pregnancy, had two hours to decide whether to donate Sophia’s heart valves.
In 2014, Deanna, then 28, described the events of that morning at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital’s Donate Life Celebration.
When she arrived at St. Elizabeth’s to deliver Sophia, Deanna had no concerns because she had felt her baby move when she woke up that day. But the fetal monitor found no heartbeat. The cause of Sophia’s death is unknown. An autopsy was performed on her heart.
“It was impeccable,” Deanna said.
After attempts to save Sophia failed, a nurse placed the 8-pound, 11-ounce baby in Deanna’s arms.
A few hours later, as Deanna cradled Sophia in her arms, a woman from Lifebanc came to talk to the Slifkas about donating Sophia’s heart valves.
“The woman spoke with such compassion and gentleness. I turned to my husband and said, ‘We have to do this,’” Deanna said at the Donate Life Celebration.
Four years later, Deanna said Sophia’s donation has given her and her husband hope and healing, and given Sophia’s brief life a purpose.
The Slifkas have gotten on with their lives, but Sophia is never far from their minds.
Deanna, a 2003 graduate of Hubbard High School with a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University, expects to graduate in December from NOVA Southeastern University with a master’s degree in counseling. The former Liberty High School teacher is doing an internship at Belmont Pines Hospital and is youth director at Church Hill United Methodist Church in Liberty.
Joe, a 2001 graduate of Boardman High School with a bachelor’s degree in education from YSU, is a STEM teacher at LaBrae High School.
They have two children – Isabella, 5, and Eliana, 2.
“We are glad we donated Sophia’s heart-valve tissue. Our prayers have been answered in so many ways,” Deanna said.
“We didn’t want another mom to go through the same thing if Sophia’s heart valves could help. We lost our daughter, but gained a family in Lifebanc,” she said.
The Slifkas began participating in the Lifebanc Gift of Life Walk and Run in 2012 and have raised more than $30,000. Proceeds from the event support community education about organ, eye and tissue donation, and provide bereavement services for families touched by donation/transplantation.
This year’s walk/run is in downtown Cleveland. The 5K and 10K runs begin at 9:15 a.m. and the Family Fun Walk, in which the Slifkas participate, begins immediately after the start of the race.
“Team Sophia is a beautiful melting pot of family and friends and co-workers and people we don’t even know who have seen our story and want to help. This is our way to say thank you to Lifebanc for what it has done for us and Sophia,” Deanna said.
“The Lifebanc Gift of Life Walk and Run provides us an opportunity to remember our daughter and carry on her legacy. You are connected at this event with donors, recipients and people on the organ waiting list. It’s so amazing to be surrounded by all of those who have been touched by organ donation,” she said.
“For me, it’s a celebration. The donations prove that beauty can rise from the ashes. In the end, it’s a story about love,” Deanna said.
For information about the walk/run and how to donate and credit Team Sophia, visit GOLWR@lifebanc.org or call 888-558-5433.