Olympic bronze medallist Chris Klug will meet with fellow organ transplant recipients at the NHS/UNMC Transplant Reunion on July 12, 2003. Klug is the first American with an organ transplant to ever compete in the Olympic Games.
The theme of the 2003 reunion, It’s a Small World, captures the spirit of the Olympics as well as the reality of organ donation and transplantation. Nearly 1,000 recipients, donors and families are expected to attend the reunion, which will be held at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs.
The reunion is a time for celebrating life and no one appreciates that gift more than a transplant patient and their family. For many patients, the reunion is a time to catch up with old friends and the medical staff who helped them through the process.
“I look forward to the reunion all year,” said liver transplant recipient Jeanette Paulson. “It’s as though we are all one big family brought together by one special gift – the gift of life.”
Klug understands the enormity of that gift. He underwent a liver transplant in 2000 seven years after being diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, the same disease that led to the liver transplant of country music singer Chris LeDoux.
Just two years after his transplant, Klug found himself atop a Salt Lake City mountain, racing in the 2002 Olympics. With a snowboard under his feet, Klug sailed to a bronze medal making history as a transplant recipient.
Before signing autographs and snapping photographs at the reunion, Klug will visit the hospital handing out medals to those patients too sick to attend the event. Klug is a true champion and role model for transplant patients. He is a shining example of what is possible. Living life on his own terms, Klug accepts no limits. Like the other transplant patients he’ll meet, Klug shares a new perspective on life and the little things others may take for granted.
Klug will visit Nebraska Health System around 9 a.m. on July 12 and arrive at the reunion around 10:30 a.m. where he will sign autographs and tell his story during the reunion luncheon.
To view a schedule of the reunion’s events, please log onto the NHS Website at www.nebraskahealthsystem.com and visit the media center. With questions, call Kelly Grinnell at 552-2192 or Veronica Rosman at 552-2282.