Family Thankful for Transplants

ENGLEWOOD---At home together again, the Black family has a lot to be thankful for. "It's been an incredibly awesome experience going through it and having it work out. But the Black family took quite a journey to get here. Don Black, Publisher and owner of the Dayton Weekly Newspaper started having health problems. "I am going to have to have a kidney or I am going to die. He said I got you I'm going to give you a kidney." Donerik Black his son and paper's co-owner did give his dad Don that kidney back in 2006. "I was afraid I didn't want Donerik to give a kidney, so I kinda kept putting it off." Jump forward a few years and Donerik Black had health concerns of his own. "It was really quick I was short of breath one night we went to the emergency room and they said I needed a Mitral Valve replacement." A surgery, several treatments, meds and a few years later. Black's health concerns became dire but he remained optimistic. "One of the best doctors in the world had a meeting with us there is no repairing this heart you need a heart transplant. "Some months later he was on the waiting list, waiting for a new heart. His dad who remember had his son's kidney was having a hard time. "It devastated me because I felt if because of his kidney something would go wrong it was partly me." Through it all Donerik stayed strong even when the Cleveland Clinic became his new home. "All you can do is hope that everything goes the way it is suppose to go." But his wife Angie admits there were times, moments. "It was a lot I definitely had my moments and they were usually private by myself but he was my rock." Just a day before his 45th birthday. Black got the gift of a lifetime. "In retrospect 49 days is drop in the bucket but on day 36 it seemed like it was forever." And it appears his miracle wasn't the only one at the Cleveland Clinic in late February two other men he met at the hospital both with his rare blood type got hearts too. "I got my call and 5 minutes later her got his call and there was another gentlemen who got a call and I think that was a record for Cleveland clinic to get three hearts in 24 hours." Black wants everyone who hears his story to think about this. "The only reason I am here is because of the tireless efforts of the American Heart Association as far as research the tireless efforts of donor organizations who are out there coordinating and recruiting without those organizations I am not here."