Message from COTA President Rick Lofgren

Dear Friend,

Jodi Sornsin is a typical working mother living in Tempe, Arizona, with two teenagers who keep her running in many directions seemingly at the same time. But 15 years ago Jodi was a mother who was facing a terrible reality -- her seemingly healthy baby boy, Ben, was going to die unless he received a liver transplant. And if that news wasn’t devastating enough, Jodi and her husband were being questioned almost daily by the transplant hospital’s financial staff about how they were going to pay those costs not covered by their insurance.

“In just two weeks’ time, our lives went from the normal everyday things to sitting at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center waiting for Ben to get a life-saving liver transplant,” said Jodi Sornsin. “As we were sitting there waiting for a liver, the financial staff started asking us how we were going to pay for the transplant.” The price tag for Ben’s liver transplant was $450,000 and the Sornsin’s had $100,000 of insurance to cover transplant costs.

Jodi remembers, “Our first visit to the finance office was a little scary and our first thought was, ‘Are they going to make us leave?’ Ben was upstairs in very critical condition and needed a liver. We needed a way to assure the hospital that we could pay for the transplant.”

Desperately needing a transplant miracle, friends of the family told the Sornsin’s about the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA). Jodi contacted COTA and received the paperwork, which was the first step of the fundraising program that would ultimately help pay Ben’s transplant-related expenses.

“That’s when the miracle happened ... the hospital’s financial officer never called again because they had been assured by COTA that transplant expenses would be paid,” said Jodi. “That was such a relief to us. We could concentrate all of our energy on getting Ben well so we could take him home to play with his sister, Amanda, again.”

“We left the hospital knowing we still had lots of work ahead of us, but with COTA’s guidance and support, our friends, relatives and people we didn’t even know, helped raise $135,000 in nine months’ time. If we hadn’t found COTA, we likely would have had to file for bankruptcy protection.”

Once Ben was home and recovering, and once the bills had been paid, Jodi Sornsin decided that she and her family needed to take action and give back to COTA, and to other Southwest families who were facing similar transplant crises. Jodi’s first effort was helping with fundraising activities sponsored by COTA in the Phoenix area. Since that time, Jodi has found innovative ways to help raise awareness of COTA throughout Arizona, and has created ways to raise funds to assist COTA patients.

Giving Hope ... Making Miracles. You too, can get involved and help a COTA family in your community by sponsoring a fundraising event for COTA. COTA Saturday is an event designed to give local groups and individuals a platform to raise funds for transplant-needy children, and to raise awareness of the need for organ and tissue donors. COTA Saturday 2008 will be celebrated nationwide on September 20th. I encourage you to start planning a COTA Saturday event now. Please visit www.cotasaturday.org to see how you can get actively involved helping us help transplant patients and their families.

The Sornsin’s family story is one of more than 1,300 we have been privileged to be part of over the past 22 years. COTA is committed to making this journey with each of our
families -- families who desperately need hope ... and who sometimes receive a miracle.

I hope you will decide to organize a COTA Saturday event in your community so we can continue to give hope and make miracles for families like the Sornsin’s.

Rick Lofgren, CFRE
President
Children’s Organ Transplant Association

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