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[Page S2994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Tribute to Robert King
Mr. President, in a sermon on the Good Samaritan, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., said that most people who come upon a stranger in need ask:
``If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?''
But the Good Samaritan reverses the question and asks: ``If I do not
stop to help this man, what will happen to him?''
The latter person is rare and special, Dr. King said. On the Saturday
before Easter, that special person was another man named Robert King of
Chicago. Mr. King was driving on heavily traveled Lake Shore Drive,
which passes right in front of my apartment, when he saw a green and
white van on the side of the road. Another vehicle had crashed into
that van at a stoplight. The van was a wreck.
Many cars passed the accident and did nothing, but Robert King
didn't. Mr. King pulled over to stop and see if he could help. He
noticed that the man in the van held a cooler and thought he might be
delivering food. King was stunned to find out that the van was an organ
transplant vehicle and the man in the van was an organ transplant
surgeon, Dr. Kofi Atiemo. Inside the cooler were three precious human
organs--a liver, a kidney, and a pancreas--that needed to be rushed to
nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital as soon as possible.
Robert King, a passerby, stopped to help one stranger in need. He
ended up helping to save two lives. Those precious organs were the
final magnanimous gift of a young woman who died too soon and had the
heart to donate her organs. One patient at Northwestern received her
liver and kidney, while her pancreas went to another patient at a
separate hospital.
The president and CEO of Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network,
Kevin Smunt, put it best: ``Here was just a regular Chicagoan''--this
Robert King--``who, through the kindness of his heart, helped us honor
a donor family who was kind enough to donate the most precious gift
anyone can ever give.''
At the Chicago Organ Summit's annual gathering, government officials,
doctors, advocates, and families of donors gathered last month and
honored Robert King for his act of kindness, which saved lives and told
his story to the world. The two people who were helped by Robert King's
thoughtfulness are among an estimated 113,000 men and women and
children in America who are living and waiting and hoping for organs to
reach them. Every 10 minutes, another person is added to that list.
Every day, sadly, 20 people die waiting for a transplant.
The human body contains eight organs that can be transplanted to save
lives--the heart, two lungs, two kidneys, a pancreas, a liver, and
intestines. And here is the hope: Each of us can choose to save up to
eight lives by becoming an organ donor.
The world needs Good Samaritans. It needs more Robert Kings and more
organ donors.
I yield the floor.
____________________
