Twitter Transplant a "Tweet" Success

Yesterday was an unbelievable day on so many levels! Chris' nephrectomy and John's transplant surgery were textbook perfect. And literally thousands of people kept watch over the duo via Twitter, all the while, learning the importance of organ donation.

Amanda Gilbreath, whose two most special people were in separate hospitals' operating rooms, was able to be in two places at the same time (haven't we all wished for that!). She knew exactly when Dr. Arenas made the incision above Chris' belly button to begin the laproscopic surgery (7:48 a.m.). She knew just what time his kidney arrived at the Children's OR (10:34 a.m.). And if she were curious, she knew what kind of music the staff listened to while they stitched in John's healthy new organ (Blondie, at 11:26 a.m.).

If you watched a local newscast last night, or heck, even some national ones, you probably saw John's sweet little smile and heard Amanda's eloquent recount of the day. Today, senior writer Sherry Jacobson shared the Gilbreath's story on the front page of The Dallas Morning News. And Children's two talented photographers, Juan Pulido and Louis Curtis, Jr., compiled their images on the Children's web site for all of you to enjoy. John is going to have one heck of a scrapbook to remember this experience!

I am so happy to report that John is doing great. He was up bright and early this morning watching cartoons from his hospital bed. And Chris is feeling much better today, too. Amanda is hopeful he'll be able to join the rest of the family at Children's as early as tomorrow.

There are so many people to thank for their help yesterday - Drs. Juan Arenas and Dev Desai for allowing us all access to their operating rooms; the transplant coordinators, one who gave up his vacation day, who translated medical jargon into Tweets all of us commoners could understand; the rest of John's and Chris' care teams who were so accomodating of the extra company in their work space; and most importantly, the Gilbreath family for sharing so much of themselves to help raise awareness for organ donation.

And just because John is so darn cute, we'll leave you with this photo we captured this morning. Already a shy smile creeping on to his lips...


Continued best wishes for speedy recoveries, Gilbreath boys!