Joseph Kroot Remembered in Washington D.C.
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Joseph Kroot Remembered in Washington D.C.
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Joseph Kroot and his family had discussed organ donation before, never expecting that one day they would be making this life saving decision. A family friend, Micah Loggie, was diagnosed with HSP Syndrome in 1994. The Loggies and the Kroots shared many simchas together including the B’Nai Mitzvah of Shalom Kroot and Alicia Loggie in 1989.
As Micah’s condition worsened over the summer of 1994, the Kroots became aware that Micah might need a kidney transplant. Micah was hospitalized for several months, including long periods of isolation with no visitors while receiving chemotherapy.
Both David and Joseph Kroot were concerned about their friend. They sent him a Gameboy with some of their old games, and David shared his many secrets on how to master those games. Both boys offered to share one of their kidneys with Micah. They just wanted him to get well. Micah improved, thanks to G-d, and while his kidneys still showed evidence of damage, there was no need for a kidney transplant. Micah’s illness changed the way the Kroots looked at organ donation.
In April, the Kroots and other donor families from around the country attended the National Donor Recognition Ceremony where Joseph Kroot and other donors were remembered with a "Gift Of Life Donor" medal. The medal was created to help draw attention to the extraordinary compassion demonstrated by the families in face of their own sudden and tragic loss. It also serves as a medal of honor for those, like Joseph, whose "life-giving" organs were donated. The medal was designed to be mounted on the memorial at the cemetery.
The "Gift Of Life Donor" medal is part of an effort to focus more attention on donors and their families, the true heroes of transplantation, while also increasing awareness of organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
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