The Gift of Life

The letter from Mid-America Transplant Services

April 14, 2010

Dear Virginia:

On behalf of Mid-America Transplant Services, I would like to offer my deepest condolences on the recent loss of your beloved son, Jacob Gentry. I would also like to offer my thanks for your courageous Gift of Life on behalf of Jacob. It is deeply moving when families are able to consider the needs of others, even as they are grieving the loss of a loved one. I would like to share with you the results of Jacob's Gift in the hope that it may bring you and your family a measure of comfort in the days to come.

The recipient of Jacob's liver is a 55-year-old gentlemen from Missouri. He was listed for his life-saving transplant in February of 2010 due to cholangiocarcinoma. He is married with two daughters and is self employed. I am happy to report he is doing well in his recovery. The gift of Jacob's right kidney was received by a 53-year-old gentlemen from Missouri. He was listed for his transplant in April of 2008 due to polycystic kidney disease. He is a farmer, enjoys church, time with his family, and playing the banjo. He is also doing well in his recovery. The recipient of Jacob's left kidney is a 24-year-old woman from Illinois. She was listed for a transplant in December of 2007. She is recovering nicely at this time.

The benefits of Jacob's donation of skin tissue and bone may touch over fifty individuals. Those needing skin grafts, orthopedic and neurosurgeries will have improved lives due to this gift. Two individuals in need of life saving open-heart surgery will receive the gift of Jacob's heart valves. Two individuals from the St. Louis area have received the Gift of Sight due to the transplantation of Jacob's corneas.

Jacob's Gift of Life has touched not only his recipients, but also their many family and friends. Once again, I offer my condolences on your loss and if I may help in any way, please contact me. I continue to hold you in my prayers.

Sincerely,
Sue



JACOB'S PRAYER CARD

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow;
I am the diamond glints on the snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain;
I am the gentle autumn's rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush,
of quiet birds in a circled flight.
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there; I did not die.

Jacob

Oh Bubba

We celebrated Jacob's life. There was nothing easy about it. I'm heart broken like everyone else. The service was beautiful and reiterated, how precious life is. How we look for opportunities to enjoy life like Jake did. It also revealed that we aren't invincible. The message was so powerful. In no way was this part of God's plan, or any kind of punishment. God hurts just like us, he doesn't want to see us this way. I had this conversation with my mom as well. Jacob would hate if we shut down and ignored the world. That would never be what he would want. We will mourn the loss of Jacob physically, but rejoice, about where his spirit is. I can only offer words of encouragement. My baby brother will live on, if you let him. Rachel

Baby Boy

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.

Jake passed away this morning at 9:35.

My heart aches as I write this, as it has with all of my other posts. There are no right words to say or something that can bring anyone immediate comfort. We have struggled this past week as has Jake.
We have been at a great hospital surrounded by outstanding staff, and have had an overflow of love and support from family and friends. Through prayer and thought as a family we have made decisions for Jacob this entire week. I cannot imagine anything else that could be quite this painful, yet I am sure it is possible.
I want to stress the fact that Jacob did have an aneurysm that did burst and has made him very ill, however; the drug Oxy Contin played a huge role in what happened. We are in no way trying to 'sugar coat' this tragedy. From my mother's own words, "if anything good were to come of this, I would hope that it would save another life."
My brother had an endearing smile and laugh. He loved things that were adventurous and gave him a chance to be wild...
I had mentioned earlier that is was so hard to see him be so still. That hasn't gotten any easier. Jacob has been trapped in a body that doesn't function, work or operate in anyway since March 28th. Selfishly, I don't want to let go, but realistically, I know this is no way for anyone to live.
Jacob's life lives on in others. Some people knew Jake as a child, and some only as a young adult. Some of us were lucky enough to know Jake from the beginning, when he was "Elmer" in my Mom's belly.
Jacob will be giving the gift of life to many people as we have decided on his behalf to donate his organs.
We will be having a Celebration of Life Ceremony Saturday April 10, 2010
Visitation will be from 1:00pm-3:00pm with a service immediately following at 3:00pm. Everything will be held at:
First United Methodist Church in St. Charles
801 1st Capitol Drive
St Charles, MO 63301-2791
(636) 947-0066


Donations can be made to the "Jacob Gentry Memorial Fund"
through Enterprise Bank and Trust
1001 First Capitol Dr. St. Charles MO 63301
As a family, we will decide on a charity to donate the funds to.


Jacob- I love you so much, I'll see you again.

Rachel

Tuesday

I know I haven't updated in a few days, it has been really difficult. Jake's progress is still the same. He has been battling fevers the past few days, and he has some kind of infection. They aren't sure about the infection but are treating it with antibiotics. His lungs are being cleared frequently, because of the constant forms of secretions. We ordered an MRI to see the damage that has been done to Jake's brain. We are still waiting on results.
We are patiently waiting and still reading to Jake.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Rachel

Silent Saturday

There isn't much to say today. Jake had peaceful night, in fact we all did. It was a quiet night and there hasn't been much change. The doctor popped in today to check on Jake and did the same tests to look for a response and again Jake is not responding. They took a chest X ray just to check on Jake's lungs. We haven't gotten the results back yet, but I will update when I do have them.
Jake is so still and looks as though he is in a deep sleep. If you know Jake at all, he is never been the kind of person to sit still. He is always on the go. It is hard to watch him be so still.
God Speed Little One

Rachel

Good Friday

I wanted to start the blog for today by just saying thank you for all of the support with Jacob. The cards, flowers, food, phone calls, voice mails, e-mails, facebook messages, and text messages have been very sweet and encouraging. Unfortunately, Jake is very susceptible to pneumonia at this point because of the secretions forming in his mouth and lungs. The nurses are suctioning his mouth constantly to try and avoid this problem, but because he is in a constant state where he is lying down it is very easy for it to form. As a concern for Jacob's health we are asking that we do not have visitors whom are not immediate family in order to decrease the number of people and germs entering the room. Again, thank you for the concern but we want to keep Jacob as healthy as possible.
We talked to Jake's doctor today and preformed the same tests to see if there was any change or response. Unfortunately, it is the same as the previous days. The ventilator is currently breathing for Jake 100% of the time which means so far he is not over riding the ventilator.
We have continued to read to Jake and Becca (his girlfriend) started reading to Jake "The Secret Life of the Bees" we noticed about after 20 minutes of her reading Jake's eyes started looking like they were moving up and down. However, we talked to the doctor about this and he considers this to be purely a reflect. This does not necessarily show brain activity.
The doctor will not be back this weekend but will be back on Monday. He has talked to another surgeon about inserting a tracheotomy and a feeding tube this coming week for Jake.
He is absorbing his food and as of right now is off his last blood pressure medicine (this for now is temporary until we see how he does without it). As we enter Easter weekend, a time normally spent with family and loved ones I ask that you please cherish this time with lots of love and laughter as we will do the same.


Rachel

Late April 1st

Hi Everyone,


I wanted to give a brief update about today. I wrote earlier this morning and I would say as a family we had a bit of a rough night. The man next door to us passed away last night-so please say a prayer for his family.

Today, Jake has been absorbing his food which was great. He also had a CT scan on his neck to make sure there weren't any fractures. Jake did well through the scan luckily has no fractures so we were able to remove his neck brace. Jake is also off another one of his blood pressure medicines so Jake is now only on one blood pressure medicine...This is great.

Throughout the day Jake has had a few low grade fevers, a high fever would be considered 100.5. Jake is being rotated continuously, and he has a few bed sores, but he is also on medicine for that.

If there is no progression for Jake by this weekend then we will be talking about inserting a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. This will alleviate all of the different cords and tubes around Jake's face and it will also be more comfortable for him.

Erin wanted me to add that she has been reading Jake all kinds of great literature including, magazine articles about Brett Michaels, and Sandra Bullock....but really we are reading to him all the time, whatever we can find.

Jake was so strong today and got a bath with his own body wash. We even gave him a little spray of his Usher cologne so he could smell more like himself.

Today was a really hard day for a lot of us, but Jake pulled through like always. Please continue to pray for his smiling face.

Rachel

The early morning April 1st

Jake had an okay night. I was the last one to fall asleep and was awake with him for a couple of hours.I had such an uneasy feeling that I just laid down staring at Jake. After falling asleep for a few hours I suddenly woke up and a male nurse introduced himself as Dave, and said he was taking over for a few hours while many of the other nurses were taking care of the man next door who he said "crashed." I cannot describe what an horrible feeling that is. I laid awake...he then asked for my mom and she suddenly woke up and talked to the nurse. He let her know that Jake's temperature had spiked during the night to 103, but this time they had given him Tylenol and it broke the fever. I fell asleep and woke again we could hear the "code blue" announced for the room next door, I laid still and could hear the sounds of people running. It is such a scary thing.

I woke up again before 7 this morning listening to Dave (the nurse) speak with my sister Erin. He was just talking about Jake, and said sometimes we make bad decisions, we all do but you really have to keep your hope. He said, he has a son who is 15 and looks a lot like Jake. He said he will be going home this morning and really talking to his son. He said, that Jake will really be in our prayers and it is difficult to see happen. He continued, I just want to encourage you to keep hoping for Jake. He said I have worked in the ICU for a long time and have worked with Dr. Wetherington (Jake's neurosurgeon) and he's a 'slick doc' Jake really is in great hands.
He gave an example of a young man who had an aneurysm burst similar to Jake's and they did surgery and while he was in the hospital the young man had a second burst on the other side of his brain. He was in a coma and very very sick for months, but he pulled through and he is functioning. He said, the young man was frustrated he had a really hard time but he made it.
I have to admit hearing stories like these are nothing but encouraging. I know everyone is different. Our bodies are all different, but Jake's resilience is one in a million.
As we have been sharing stories, Jake has always been the kid that would try anything and excel at whatever he wanted to do. This is how he operated.

BOY (as Andy would say) you're tough!

Rachel