The mother who died after a stroke at her son’s state soccer championship game has given the gift of sight to a Honolulu woman.
Hiroyo Klink, mother of high school soccer star Leo Klink, was an organ donor and gave everything possible to others in need, including her eyes. It’s something transplant donor coordinators say not enough people in Hawaii are willing to do.
Hiroyo was rushed to the hospital suffering a stroke, just before Leo scored the winning goal in Kalani High School’s championship game vs. Punahou earlier this month.
"Honestly it was the best and worst day of our life," Leo’s father, Paul Klink, said.
Hiroyo didn’t want Leo to be told she was leaving, but later at the hospital, Leo was able to be with her before she died.
"One of the last things Hiroyo saw," Paul said, "was Leo holding her hand at her bedside."
And today he learned someone else now sees, thanks to Hiroyo. Her corneas were transplanted to a Honolulu woman.
"It’s just such a bright light in such a dark, dark place. They should feel so beautiful, they’ve given us the best in the world," Paul said.
"In the worst moments of our life, it’s the only thing other than the ohana and all the aloha that’s so alive and well in Hawaii, knowing that she’s living on in these people and still helping people, that’s so her."
He adds through tears: "Just to know that the eyes I fell in love with 18 years ago, the second I met her, somebody’s looking through them still today."
It was a gift that touched the Hawaii Lions Eye Bank & Makana Foundation, the only one of its kind in the entire Pacific.
"The fact how adamant they wanted to donate," director Shawn Wofford says of the Klinks, "and the fact how much in meant to them to have this transplant."
It meant so much to the recipient, too, an older woman with a condition called Fuchs Dystrophy that causes degeneration of the back layer of the eye.
"It would be like having wax paper on a window, you just can’t see through it," Wofford explains. "They’ll transplant to another patient, they’ll switch out, just like changing windows."
Changing window, changing lives — like this for Hiroyo’s recipient: "It’s quite a bit of independence, it’s giving them their life back, where in this case they can actually do things on their own, they don’t have to worry about kids picking them up to go to the doctor’s office, they can actually go get groceries on their own."
Checking off the organ donor box for your driver’s license means you’ll your major organs — heart, lungs, kidneys — but too few donors here are willing to give their eyes.
"The U.S. has almost an abundance of corneas except for Hawaii," Wofford said. "Wvery year we need about 190 corneas just to take care of Hawaii. On average we get about 60-70 a year."
We asked what makes some reluctant to give their eyes.
"It’s cultural, it really is," Wofford explained. "In Hawaii we have a lot of people who think they need their eyes to go to heaven still, or it’s more intimate. They have no problems with hearts and kidneys."
Hiroyo gave even more.
"Knowing that her lungs are in two people, that her kidneys are in two different people, that her liver is in somebody, people who wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for her," Paul says. "Her skin is going to be used for mastectomies for burn victims, her bone marrow, to know that all that she can share with the world after her consciousness, her spirit is here and is not in her body, it’s just beautiful."
But it’s the eyes he says that hold a special power of connection, not only because of what a mother won’t see…
"I’m just sorry she won’t see him graduate," Paul says, "go to prom, go to college or have kids."
But for what someone else will see, if — by chance — their eyes should happen to meet again.
"To know we might meet somebody looking through his mother’s eyes would be awesome," Paul says. "It would be like bringing her back in a way."
Click here for more about the Hawaii Lions Eye Bank & Makana Foundation: http://www.hlebmf.org/
Click here to register as an organ donor: www.donatelifehawaii.com <http://www.donatelifehawaii.com>
Click here for how you can help Leo Klink reach the goals his mother wanted to see him achieve:
www.leoklinkfund.com
See the original article at: KHON2 Developing Stories
