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Michelle Compton speaks at USACFA Conference
By Margaret Myers
The Breathing Room's founder, Michelle Compton, gave a presentation on her transplant to this year's USACFA Conference before lunch, when the whole group had been
sitting for hours without a break. But no one even stirred during the
presentation. Michelle covered the full range of everything that transplant
really means, including her experiences in the last year before her transplant in
struggling to accept that she would not likely live to see Christmas.
But it was also filled with stories, like the decision that she and her mother
should probably not ride in the same car with her father to the hospital for the
second call, given how he had driven from the racetrack for the trial run
several months earlier!
She also included at the end a picture of her 14 year old girl who was her
donor. I think that the importance of this was stunning, as no one talking
about transplants really talked about their donor. And this, I think, was a stunning
end to the presentation that really spoke to the other half of the transplant
equation. Every member of the audience was moved. To me, it made the story
of transplants much more complete.
It seemed to me that Michelle covered the full range of everything that
happened around transplants, the transition to making the decision, the fear, the
wait, both funny and terrible things that happened along the way, the
surprise of waking up alive, the joy of being able to do things she never
assumed she would be able to do, and the sadness of feeling deeply the price
her donor paid.
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