It only takes one person....

This is just an amazing story of someone from Utah- and how 1 person's good deed tricked down to help 3 people :) Just a beautiful story! I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Beckham Fershtut, one of the three kidney recipients

When Ted Bartling, a rocket scientist from Utah, decided to donate a kidney to a stranger, he knew he'd potentially be saving one person's life. What he didn't know was that he'd be saving three people's lives.

Bartling's incredible sacrifice, or "gift as he calls it, set in motion a chain of events at Salt Lake City's University Hospital and Primary Children's Medical Center that forever linked six people and allowed three, including a 2-year-old boy, to receive successful kidney transplants late last week. On Thursday, Dr. Jeffrey Campsen, who performed surgery on the donors, told Yahoo Shine that all three recipients and their donors are thriving and have headed home or will be discharged within the next couple of days.

"For at least 15 years, donating a kidney had been on my mind as something I could do to help somebody live a normal life like mine," Bartling, 51, told Yahoo Shine. "They'll only take a kidney up until you're about 60. I can do small things for people, but sometimes we have to do the bigger things if we are capable."

Ted BartlingApparently, he picked the perfect moment. There were three patients in need, but no matches. Juan Romero, 45, who has a rare B- blood type had been on a waiting list for three years and was on dialysis. Brandy Jess, 40, also on dialysis, had a donor — her friend Kristy Buffington — but at the 11th hour, a final test revealed they were incompatible. And then there was 2-year-old Beckham Fershtut, whose parents Ari and Hayley wanted to give him a kidney but weren't good matches.

 "The chain began with the child," said Campsen. "He was weeks away from starting dialysis. For a 2-year-old it's incredibly difficult and shortens his lifespan." Campsen says he could see that Beckham's kidneys were failing. The toddler was listless and irritable, and his skin looked ashy. "And then we had a gentleman come forward who wanted to be what we call an altruistic donor."

The boy's father, Ari Fershtut, also made clear that he was willing to donate a kidney to a stranger if someone else had an organ for his son. Suddenly the pieces fell into place. "We moved quickly, and there was an 'aha moment' when we came to the table with all this information," said Campsen. Ari Fershtut was a match for Romero, Bartling was a match for Jess, and Buffington was able to donate her kidney to little Beckham.

 The surgeries were completed over two days. Bartling says that while the hospital didn't formally introduce the donors and recipients, they sought one another out in the hallways after their surgeries. "The very first person that I met was the father of the child. It was very touching to meet the little boy. It's major surgery. There is not much room for an adult kidney in a child that young. You could tell he was very comforted by having anyone by his crib." According to Campsen, Beckham is now full of energy and his prognosis is excellent. "His parents look like they have had a 100-pound weight lifted from them."

Campsen stresses the importance of live kidney donations, which he says are safe and effective, get recipients off of dialysis sooner, and lengthen their lives. There are about 90,000 people on the waiting list for transplants. "Kidney transplantation is medicine," said Campsen, "but this was about a community coming together and helping each other." He says it was like a ripple effect across Salt Lake City, the state of Utah, and "perhaps even the nation itself." Because of Bartling's courage and generosity, Beckham waited only a month for a kidney. "If it had been years," said Campsen,"he might not have survived."

By Sarah B. Weir

Even at a Gas Station....

 

 

 

 Written by Nicole Marie Heintz

So I was just on my way to work and I had to stop for gas so I allowed myself some extra time to get to work. When I pulled up to the pump I shut my car off and saw this middle aged man crying looking at the gas pump. I began to wonder what happened with this man and as I got out of my car and looked at him my heart felt like it stopped.

In Apple Valley, Minnesota it is 10 degrees and freezing cold with the wind. This man was wearing flip flops with socks covered in holes. I look I his car and see his wife in the front seat covering her face in her hands and the 2 teenage girls both of cuddling under a blanket in the back seat.

I didn't even think and I went up to the man and said sir is something the matter? He looked at me and I could tell he was on the verge of giving up because he didn't even try to conceal his tears when he said I can't even provide for my family.

Without even thinking I put my card in his machine and tell him Jesus Christ the Son of God died to provide for you. Fill up. Something, something came alive in him. He was in shock and it was like he forgot how to pump gas.

In that same moment his wife got out of her car, she asked her husband what was going on and he told her I just payed for their gas she started to cry and came around the corner to shake my hand when I saw her pants dirty and torn. I asked her to come to my car.

The airport lost some of my luggage on my way to MInnesota from California and I had to clean out my closet to find stuff to wear and get rid of a lot of stuff all of that stuff that I had yet to give away was siting in the back seat of the car and in the trunk. I opened up my car and told the lady to take what she wanted.

This lady RAN back to her car. I was so afraid I had just embraced her but a moment later her and her two girls were digging through those clothes layering my sweatshirts and shirts and sweat pants over the worn out clothes they had been wearing.

Soon the father had finished pumping the gas and came over. This attracted a little crowd at the gas station. An some older man gave the family a cub gift card and another middle aged man gave away his jacket to the father. Never in my life did I think I would see this kind of thing happen at a gas station with a handful of complete strangers.

But it gives me hope. That the love of God can be so contagious. That we are not alone in being the change we want to see in the world. That God's love is greater than anything and we get to be a part of that love changing lives. And HE always provides!

The Country Doctor

I got this AP article from Yahoo! What a sweet message of goodness still out there in the world!!

 

RUSHVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Patients line up early outside his office just off the town square, waiting quietly for the doctor to arrive, as he has done for nearly 60 years.

Dr. Russell Dohner is, after all, a man of routine, a steady force to be counted on in uncertain times.

Wearing the fedora that has become his trademark, he walks in just before 10 a.m., after rising early to make rounds at the local hospital. There are no appointments. He takes his patients in the order they sign in — first come, first-served. His office has no fax machines or computers. Medical records are kept on hand-written index cards, stuffed into row upon row of filing cabinets.

The only thing that has changed, really — other than the quickness of the doctor's step or the color of his thinning hair — is his fee. When Dohner started practicing medicine in Rushville in 1955, he charged the going rate around town for an office visit: $2.

Now it is $5.

This in an era when the cost of healthcare has steadily risen, when those who don't have medical insurance often forgo seeing a doctor. But not Dohner's patients. He doesn't even accept medical insurance — says it's not worth the bother.

"I always just wanted to be a doctor to help people with their medical problems and that's all it's for .," the 87-year-old family physician says. "It was never intended to make a lot of money."

Being a doctor, helping and providing a service — that has been his goal since he was a boy.

One of seven children, Dohner grew up on a farm just north of Rushville, outside the little town of Vermont, Ill. His father had hoped he'd take up farming, too. But young Dohner had other ideas, inspired by the town doctor who'd treated him when he had seizures as a child.

"I remember waking up and seeing the doctor there and thinking, 'THAT is what I want to do,'" he says.

After serving in the Army in World War II, Dohner went to Western Illinois University, paying for his education with funds provided by the G.I. bill. In the early 1950s, he attended Northwestern University's medical school. He had his sights set on becoming a cardiologist and thought about staying in the big city. But when a doctor in Rushville asked him to put off his heart specialist studies to practice medicine back at home, he agreed to do so, at least for a little while.

Then that doctor left town.

"So I couldn't very well leave," Dohner says. "That's just the way it worked out."

It was a sacrifice, yes. His young wife didn't want to stay in such a small town, he says, and so their marriage ended. He never remarried and instead dedicated his life to his work, only leaving this small central Illinois town for medical conferences over the years, never taking a true vacation.

Even when the medical profession changed around him, he was always on call, ready to drop everything for a patient.

Carolyn Ambrosius, now 69, recalls how her mother went to an obstetrician in Springfield when she was pregnant at age 41, a rarity back then. The doctor there told her that either she'd survive or the baby would, but not both of them — a prognosis her mother refused to accept.

So she went back to Rushville.

"God's going to take care of us — and Dr. Dohner," Ambrosius remembers her mother saying.

And the doctor did, coming to their home each day to check on her during the pregnancy, and often staying to eat meals with the family after he'd completed his exams.

"I'm not sure if he remembers," Ambrosius now says. (By now, the story is vaguely familiar to Dohner. He's delivered a lot of babies in Rushville — "nearly the whole town," by some estimates.)

But her mother did survive. "And my baby brother is now 52," Ambrosius says, standing outside Dohner's office on a crisp fall day after coming in for a check-up.

Stories like that are common around this town, a quaint place with cobblestone streets around the main square and majestic old mansions, some of which have seen better days. It's the sort of place where patients give their doctor a gift or bring baked goods to say thank you. The walls of Dohner's office hold items such as a homemade clock adorned with shiny beads, embroidery, cards, photos and paintings, including one of the doctor fishing, once a favorite pastime.

These days, though, it takes all his energy just to rise before 7 a.m. to head to the hospital, then to his office and back to the hospital, where the "Doctors' Dictating Lounge," named for his father, is set up with a desk and a cot for the occasional nap.

On Thursdays, Dohner closes his office at noon, but even then, he heads to the local nursing home to visit residents. On Sundays, he sees patients before church and stops by the hospital afterward.

He's there, indeed, like clockwork. But as much as townspeople have grown to count on him, they also worry, as he's become increasingly frail.

"He's going to be dearly missed, not just in town but the three- or four-county area around the town, you know, because people come from all over just to him," says Robert Utter, a 37-year-old emergency medical technician who's been a patient since he was a small boy.

The doctor's staff is aging, too. One of his nurses, Rose Busby, is 86. His secretary, Edith Moore, who grew up living next door to the Dohner farm, is 85.

"You been here before?" Moore asks many patients who step up to the office window to sign in throughout the day.

Though she may not remember everyone, she's not surprised when they answer, "Yes."

"Everybody in the world has been here before," she says, somehow managing to find each patient's index card in the filing cabinets that run down the hallway. "They're full," she says.

Moore is the one who collects the $5 fee when the patients leave — though a few times a day, Dohner tells her "never mind" and tries to quietly let a few go with no charge. Patients sometimes protest.

"Next time, I'll pay $20!" one insists. But it's clear that this patient and others are grateful, and often relieved.

Few doctors today could practice medicine the way Dohner does.

"I don't hardly make enough to pay my nurses," he concedes with a chuckle.

Most of his income comes from the farm that his family still owns and that is now run by a nephew. So, although he never became a farmer, the farming life made it possible for this country doctor to maintain his practice, his way.

And he intends to keep it going as long as he possibly can.

"As long as I can make it up here, I'll help if I can," says Dohner, who has no plan to retire. Medical colleagues keep a watchful, caring eye on him.

He notes that his mother lived into her mid-90s. "I guess I don't know anything else to do," he says.

During a visit to Culbertson Memorial Hospital, he stops to see Virginia Redshaw Wheelhouse, a 97-year-old patient. Her eyes open when she hears his voice. The doctor holds her hand and pats her shoulder.

Afterward, stammering but determined to get the words out, she says, "I pray he lives to be 99," as her daughter-in-law, Cathy Redshaw, nods.

"There's no words to describe what he does for people and the effect he has on people," says Cindy Kunkel, a registered nurse at the hospital, where Dohner spends many evenings on "second rounds," as she calls them.

She recalls working the night shift and seeing him pull into the hospital drive, often with a patient in his car.

"He may have his slippers on, but he would have his hat and his suit on," Kunkel says, smiling. "And he would bring a patient in that needed to be put to bed and taken care of."

Stephanie LeMaster, who grew up in Rushville, remembers interviewing Dohner for a school report when she was in fourth grade. Before then, she'd planned on being a nurse, like her mom and grandmother before her. But that interview changed everything, she says.

Dohner became a role model — and now she is a first-year medical student at Southern Illinois University.

"They tell me I should be the next Dr. Dohner, but I'm not sure I can live up to him," LeMaster says. "He's the only one like him."

A Glass of Milk

A GLASS OF MILK

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?” “You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.” He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Year’s later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

“Paid in full with one glass of milk”
Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.

The Last Taxi Ride

 Found this on Facebook- now isn't this a true story of the Spirit of Christmas???

A NYC Taxi driver wrote:


I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.

There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.'

'Oh, you're such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, 'Could you drive through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly..

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued in a soft voice..'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired.Let's go now'.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' She asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug.She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut.It was the sound of the closing of a life..

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day,I could hardly talk.What if that woman had gotten an angry driver,or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

Taking the time to notice

My friend Katie posted this on her facebook yesterday and she kindly let me share it with you!! I think this is a perfect example of how we can help anyone anywhere if we are just willing to look.

"We helped a man out with a motel room tonight. He was mentally ill, and had missed his bus home to Seattle. He needed to catch the next one in the morning... I learned a a few lessons from that man tonight. First, that no matter who you are, it is humiliating to ask others for help when you truly need it and have no other choice, I knew this by the shame in his eyes. Second, that we live in a cruel world full of many people not willing to try and understand those who don't have life as easy as we do. I knew this by the way others laughed and talked about him after his pleas were denied and he was sent away from the establishment. Third, that anyone can be honest. I knew this by the way he did not ask me to pay for the whole room. He pulled every dollar he had from his pockets and then three dollars in change at the counter and said he was only $12 dollars short. I knew this would mean a 16 hour bus ride with no money for food or drink. So we put all but just a few dollars on our card to cover his room only because he insisted on paying some. Fourth, thats contrary to what many people may think, mentally ill people understand and have many feelings, one of which is gratitude. I knew this by the way he could not say thank you enough with tears in his eyes. He shook our hand and handed me a peace of paper he'd ripped of his receipt. It had the last four digits of my card number on it. He told me there was nothing he would need those numbers for. Fifth, that God makes no mistakes. I can not think of one good reason we were at Perkins in Bismarck at 12:30 a.m. other then to have been in the right place at the right time to help that man. I know many people may think I have contributed to a substance abuse problem, but, I know where my money went. I also know I didn't loose anything tonight but rather I gained something. I know how my heart feels now and that that man has a warm place to sleep on this cold foggy night... I hope this can inspire others the way it did for me."

 

Thank you Katie for inspiring us!!!

A great start to a new year!

Today I found a great story about selfless service and the niceness that can be found in the world! 

The story comes from Yahoo!- 

a van will 3 children ( 2- 9 year old girls, and 1- 4 year old boy) rolled in to the Logan river as the driver tried to stop on the icy roads. 

Immediately, passerby's stopped and helped rescue the three children ( the driver was able to get out). The van was UPSIDE DOWN- the passerby's jumped into the freezing water and together, flipped the van over so they could rescue the children.

One girl escaped unharmed. The boy was pulled out unconscious and not breathing but one of the bystanders gave him CPR and he was resuscitated! The other girl was also unconscious. Both were taking to Primary Children's and are out of ICU. 

I love to hear stories of normal people stopping their everyday lives to help others!

click here to read the complete article