Even if racewalker and swimmer Rich McMahon does not bring home a gold medal from the U.S. Transplant Games next month in Columbus, Ohio, the Naperville resident considers himself a big winner.
“I used to have a hard time just walking inside from the car without getting exhausted, and now I’m living a normal life,” said McMahon, 47, a retired carpenter who received a kidney and pancreas nearly a decade ago and now serves as president of the Organ Transplant Support Group, a national organization. “I’ve gotten to see my kids get married, and I have a grandson who is 2 1/2.
“The Games are very competitive.”
To prepare, McMahon will step up his hour-a-day training program over the next few weeks in preparation for the national Olympics-style competition, billed as the largest-ever gathering of transplant recipients.
“Every state wants to win as many medals as possible,” he said. “But it’s also one of the biggest organ donor-awareness programs you will ever see. The whole world can see transplant recipients competing.”
A record 2,000 organ recipients are expected to compete in more than a dozen sports at the biennial event, which kicks off Aug. 5 on the campus of Ohio State University and continues through Aug. 8. Nearly four dozen rehabilitated athletes will compete for Team Illinois, including a handful of heart, kidney and pancreas recipients from DuPage County.
Though Team Illinois members must be prepared to cover their traveling and hotel expenses, the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, the team’s sponsor, is seeking donations to help defray costs of uniforms and trading pins. Call the Kidney Foundation at 312-663-3103 for more information.
The competition dates to the early 1980s and has been coordinated by the National Kidney Foundation since 1990. It recognizes the contributions of the more than 5,000 families who donate organs and tissues of loved ones each year, according to Kate O’Connor, director of public programs for the Chicago-based National Kidney Foundation of Illinois and manager of Team Illinois.
“This whole big thing is about organ donor awareness, and getting (potential organ donors) to tell families of their wishes,” O’Connor said. According to National Kidney Foundation statistics, more than 53,000 Americans are awaiting organ transplants. When organs become available, recipients are selected on the basis of medical urgency and compatibility with the donor on such matters as body size and blood chemistry and not on the basis of race or sex, according to the Kidney Foundation.
Heart recipient Sandra Kay Nawracaj of Glen Ellyn traveled to the 1996 U.S. Transplant Games in Salt Lake City to cheer on friends on Team Illinois. This time, Nawracaj, a 58-year-old grandmother of six, will be a Team Illinois competitor in walking and bowling events.
“The Games are an overwhelming experience,” said Nawracaj, who received a new heart in 1994 from a male Canadian donor. “There’s an automatic bond (between transplant recipients) at the games. We cry when we get there and we cry when we leave. It’s like we’re all one big happy family.
“Of course it would be nice to win a trophy, but it’s very rewarding just to be there.
“Everybody has shared the same fears and wondered if an organ would come in time. You realize that someone had to pass on in order for you to live, but you’re so happy that someone signed up to donate their organs. You feel as if you are living and competing for that person.”
Ivan Fahs, a Wheaton College sociology professor who received a heart transplant in 1995 from a teenage girl, once considered it “an Olympic accomplishment” to get up from a chair by himself. Now, Fahs said, he is gearing up to “walk, wobble and jog” to the finish line of a 5-kilometer race at the Transplant Games. He also will enter the softball throw and biking events.
“I don’t really see myself as an athlete, but it’s important to demonstrate that those of us who have had transplants are not immobilized, shabby people,” Fahs said. “We’re going on with our lives and trying to keep ourselves in shape.”
While many Team Illinois members–including McMahon, Nawracaj and Fahs–are competing in the games for the first time, team member Jason Barishman, 24, of Wheaton, is a U.S. Transplant Games medalist.
Barishman, who developed heart problems as a teenager and underwent a heart transplant in 1995, won two bronze medals in cycling and a bronze medal in table tennis at the 1996 competition. This year he will enter volleyball, table tennis, long jump and high jump events.
“The 1996 games were awesome,” said Barishman, who studied advertising illustration at the College of DuPage and works for a men’s clothing store. “There were people there of different races and different ages, all competing and having fun.
“Everybody could relate to each other, because we all had gone through the same thing. God gave all of us a second chance.
“My heart came from a troubled kid who committed suicide. I’ve often thought about how wonderful it was that his family could think about helping someone else during their time of tragedy.”
McMahon, too, often thinks of the donor who made it possible for him to compete in the 1998 Transplant Games. McMahon’s new heart came from a man who also was a carpenter and, like McMahon, had a son and a daughter.
“He killed himself, and I got his kidney and pancreas,” McMahon said. “I’m grateful to his family for donating his organs. I think of him often.”
