The meeting between a young woman named Karina and Jill Grandes, the CEO of Tennessee’s organ donation service organization, in the United States on September 3 has drawn the world’s attention.
Because of this meeting, it came to light that exactly 25 years ago, Jill Grandes took a major step to save an infant’s life on September 11, 2001. While the whole world was talking about the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in the United States, Jill Grandes sat with the satisfaction of having saved a child’s life.
On the 3rd, Jill Grandes, the CEO of Tennessee Organ Donor Services, embraced a young woman named Karina, who came up smiling at her. Tears were in both of their eyes.
They had never met each other before. But a thread called help had connected them. And that too on the very day their country was facing a national disaster.
On Sept. 11, 2001, a passenger plane was flown into the Twin Towers of the United States in a massive terrorist attack. Thousands of people were killed in it. As a precaution, all American flights were ordered to land. The American airspace was left deserted. Many would already know that this happened.
But on the previous day, it was discovered that a baby born in the United States, who was in a condition where it could die within minutes, could have only its liver used for organ donation. A six-month-old baby named Karina, who was being treated at a children’s hospital in Houston on Sept. 11, needed a liver. All arrangements were made to bring it immediately by plane. Then, suddenly, the terrorist attack happened. Flights were grounded.
How could this organ donation be carried out? On a national day of disaster, how could a plane be brought in? There were a thousand questions. The only answer was yes. It could be done. The one who said that was Jill Grandes.
Perhaps, if we do not carry out this organ donation, we will become people who have killed a child—that is also the position of the organ donor organization.
Grandes dials the numbers on the phone. He approaches Nashville International Airport. He expects a refusal. But the airport administration immediately informs the Tennessee National Guard headquarters. Permission is granted right away. The emergency disaster team reaches the airport. A military cargo plane, a C-130, is prepared. Into that aircraft, which was expected to carry cargo weighing several thousand pounds, a small box is loaded, containing a liver weighing less than 100 grams. Carrying it, the plane flew into the empty sky.
With air traffic grounded across the country, it flew from Nashville to Houston carrying the life-saving liver. A medical team was ready there.
The tiny liver was transplanted into Karina. She recovered well and returned home from the hospital. On one hand, the parents found some comfort in their loss, knowing they had helped save another child’s life.
Years passed as everyone went on with their own lives. But every year on Sept. 11, Karina would reportedly call Grandas and speak with him on the phone. Exactly 25 years after this happened, the reunion between the young Karina and Grandas has taken place.
It is easy to say it cannot be done and give up on many things, thinking what can we do. But it is the single word “can,” and the positive answer “yes,” that have created many histories here. Among them, Jill Grandas stands out as an achiever, a star of hope. On the 9/11 memorial day, with tribute to the thousands who lost their lives, a salute to Jill Grandas.