JRI In the News!

Redford's son thanks artists for organ donation aid
By BEVERLY KEEL
Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, 11/28/06

Jamie Redford, a nationally known filmmaker, is in Nashville to promote organ donation awareness and to thank Nashvillians such as Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Phil Vassar for their support of this cause.

The son of actor/director Robert Redford, Jamie Redford, 44, made news when he received two liver transplants. Shortly after the second transplant, the first one failed because the liver didn't receive adequate blood supply during surgery, the younger Redford formed the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about organ and tissue donation through film, music and the Internet.

"My life was saved 13 years ago by a liver transplant," said Redford , a married father of two children. "I had an auto immune disorder that wiped out my liver. Through the miracle of transplantation, I am here today. Like a lot of people who go through this experience, you want to give back afterwards because I owe my life to doctors, nurses and donor families."

"Transplantation represents a cure for a lot of fatal diseases. It works. People go on to live very happy, normal lives. There is a problem with shortage. Thousands of people are dying every year awaiting transplantation. If everybody that could donate organs did, that number would (drop) significantly."

He said media reports of the inequities of organ-waiting lists and Americans going abroad to receive transplants have caused uncertainty in the general population. "It's not that those things aren't true” they are going on and they speak to how serious the shortage is, but day in and day out, there are unknown heroes in this country who in the worst moment of their lives are deciding to donate organs to someone they don't even know. That is an extraordinary gift."

On March 10, the JRI is holding a fundraiser in Omaha , Neb. which is where Redford received his transplants that will include performances by McGraw, Hill, Vassar, Alana Grace and Rivers Rutherford. James Denton will be the host for the event. Funds raised from it will be used to support a program that enlists youth ages 12-18 to help create animated public service announcements, said Annie Aft, the institute's director. The two-day program has worked with students in Utah and California , and Aft said she would like to bring the program to Nashville , Omaha and New Orleans .

"We focus on the family and youth," Aft said. "When young people get their driver's license, that is the first time they are ever confronted with this question, and they don't have a clue, nor do their parents, what they are saying yes or no to. I want them to be educated so they understand what they are doing.

"When you are faced with these decisions, it is an impossible time to think clearly. But the fact that people do not need to be dying is the most important message."

March 10, 2007
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