The NBC affiliate (WXIA/11Alive) is running Quinnlin’s story tomorrow morning for the first time (I guess this means it might run again over the weekend?) tomorrow (Friday) morning between 6:30-6:45am. Right before air time at 5am they will have a live chat open so it you watch and happen to be online there might be discussions about the story.
I’m going to try to be online, but in hospital life, one never knows what will happen from one day hour to the next, so we shall see.
I have to tell you how wonderful their reporter Julie Wolfe is because she is just such a nice person. She had received a press release in December about a letter Quinnlin had written to Santa about her new kidney. She came out and did a story on Quinn on Christmas Eve and asked for us to let her know when the transplant was scheduled because she wanted to do a follow up story.
So we’d been conversing the last couple of months about timing. And then the story kind of grew. We worked out being able to film here at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Egleston Campus) then got permission to tweet the doctor’s comments, then permission for her to be in the OR. During our interview last week at home we mentioned Quinnlin’s school and how supportive they’ve been for both Gage and Quinn and she asked our county if she could film at the school. They gave permission and she filmed there on Monday. We spent time with her Monday and of course Tuesday pre and post transplant.
What happened after the transplant that she attended was a moment. I don’t know if Julie felt it but I sure did. She was interviewing me right after we got word that the transplant was successful and she’d come busting out in her scrubs, including shoe covers with a smile on her face and happiness. Happiness to be one of the first people to be with us during those first few minutes after we learned that the kidney worked. Quinnlin was doing well. No complications. The kidney had safely gone from a family friend into our daughter and it worked. The moment came when tears started to flow. Honestly it’s kind of a blur but I think she asked me how I felt about the transplant and it being over and what it felt like knowing it was so far, successful. When I was answering I got emotional. She looked back at me with such understanding because she’d just witnessed what I was happy and overwhelmed about, and she was emotional too.
So, I had a moment with Julie that will forever be embedded in my mind as one of the pivotal events that happened at the exact moment I had hope. Hope for my daughter. We shared it. And it was real.
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Leave it to you to bring a seasoned journalist to tears as well as yourself!? Oh wait, you did that to me a long time ago…who are you, Barbara Walters?!
I love it that she was able to document this! So glad that others will be able to see Quinn’s transplant journey! You’ve been fighting to get this story told since before Gage’s surgery and I am thrilled that it’s happening.
You are a champion, not only for your two kids, but for all the kids with ARPKD! Congratulations on Quinn’s wonderful new kidney, and your hard work paying off! You’re an amazing momma!