Thursday, November 19, 1998
Patients At Heart Of Film
James Redford's organ transplant documentary
wins praise at preview screening in Omaha
By Mary McGrath
World-Herald Medical Writer
"The Kindness of Strangers," a documentary that looks
at transplantion from a human perspective, was praised and applauded
by those attending a Wednesday night preview showing at the Rose
Theater.
Produced by the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness,
the film was shown in Omaha so that it could be shared with transplant
patients, family and staff at the University of Nebraska Medical
Center who were integral to the making of the 105-minute documentary.
Its developers plan to have the documentary out on TV by next spring
or fall.
The film's executive producer knew his subject well. Redford, a
writer and son of actor Robert Redford, underwent two liver transplants
at the Medical Center in early 1993.
Constructed without a narrator, the film puts transplant patients,
family members and friends, and the parents and spouses of organ
donors, in conversation with viewers. There are doctors, nurses
and other caregivers there, too, but they are not the main focus.
Transplant surgeons repeatedly have told the public that the shortage
of organs keeps patients on the waiting lists too long. What that
means in human terms is the essense of the story of Peter Laurel
Wiley of Glenwood, IA. The couple let the camera follow them for
months as Wiley got ever sicker, suffering disappointments and setbacks.
By the time a lever was found for him, he was sustained on a breathing
tube and barely able to open his eyes. His transplant was on Jan.
15, 1996.
Two Omahans also are part of the film. They are Robina Hutfless,
now 36, who underwent a heart transplant Oct. 7, 1990, at Bryan
Hospitalin Lincoln, and Amber Cotton, now 12, who was 18months old
when she underwent a liver transplant at the Medical Center.
The warmest applause Wednesday night came when all three of the
transplant patients and their family members stood to be recognised.
All are doing well.
Wiley, now 43, is back to his jewelry repair business and feeling
great. "You couldn't tell that I've had a transplant. I am
feeling so wonderful its almost scary," he said in an interview.
Amber is in the seventh grade at Omaha's Nathan Hale Middle School.,
where she's involved in band and chorus. "I thank the medical
center for giving me my beautiful girl back," said Joy Cotton,
who at one point was told her daughter had only 24 hours to live.
Hutfless, although she has battled rejection and infections, said
she has acheived her goals of seeing her two sons growing and healthy
and of sharing life with her husband, Kevin.
Neither the Redford Institute nor any of the films it produces intend
to tell people they should donate organs, Redford said. That's a
decision each person must make.
But he said he hopes "The Kindness of Strangers" will
encourage Americans to think about two often-avoided issues -- death
and dying -- and to give meaningful considersation to transplantation
and organ donation.
"The Kindness of Strangers" was previewed in Omaha in
conjunction with a week of events marking the opening of the Lied
Transplant Center on the campus of the Medical Center.
(c) 1998 Omaha World-Herald