2019 Molly Blackwood

Name:                                     Molly Blackwood

Type of Donation:             Tissue recipient

Age and Location:             Age 73 – Brookfield, WI

Transplant Date:                 1/4/2018

Sponsor:                                Honored by RTI Donor Services

MOLLY’S STORY

Molly Blackwood spent much of her life working as a registered nurse (RN) at a large hospital. As a “float RN,” she worked in every unit of the hospital and was always most fascinated with the transplant surgery and bone marrow transplant units. She had the opportunity to care for some of the first liver transplant patients in the United States and watched with interest as transplantation advanced and changed the lives of patients over the following years and decades. Molly became a staunch advocate for organ donation, educating her family and friends about its importance and signing up to become a donor herself. She never imagined that one day she would be the recipient of a life-changing donation.

Over the past several years, Molly began experiencing severe low back pain along with sciatica. She had always been an active person – an avid downhill skier, competitive racquetball player, golfer and gardener – but now her pain was so intense that she often could not sleep through the night, and needed a heat pack to relieve the pain. Steroid injections would provide relief for several weeks, before the pain returned. Finally, her doctors recommended surgery. Molly was hesitant to take this step but ultimately agreed, knowing she could not spend the rest of her life living this way.

On January 4, 2018, Molly had an anterior and posterior lumbar fusion in which a combination of her own bone marrow, donated bone tissue and a medically produced material were placed between her vertebrae with the hopes of forming a “fusion” of her spine and growth of new bone in that area. When she woke up following the surgery, the pain was gone.
Molly is eternally grateful to her donor and the donor’s family for their generous and caring gift of tissue donation, and hopes the family finds some comfort in knowing their loved one helped restore another person’s life. She wrote a letter thanking the donor family, which she closed by saying “Thank you from the bottom of my heart (and spine).”  And she meant every word.