10-7-14
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
One Children’s Hospital Drive
4401 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Dear Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Organ Transplant Division:
Over the 14 years of my life, I have lived 10 of them with a liver transplant. The other 4 years before the transplant weren’t so great, because it was then that I was sick with Maple Syrup Urine Disease. I have said thank you many times over the years after the transplant and took each day as a gift and a blessing. However, I never formally thanked you all for taking my mom’s seemingly impossible request back then. For if you hadn’t, I would not be enjoying the life I have. I told myself that someday I would formally thank you for what you did, but I never got around to it. I wanted to change that, so I wrote this to you in order to complete my long time goal. My name is Jakob Stapleton Jasin, aka JJ. I’m almost 15 and my parents are Chris and Susan Jasin, and I have a wonderful sister named Alyna, who is adopted, as well as a beautiful dog named Bella. I just recently started my freshman year of high school, and I am already part of the school’s cross country team and have a wonderful group of friends. So far I have straight A’s, and I’m taking all Honors classes. I could go further with what my life is like, but the point is that all of this I just mentioned would not be possible for me if you hadn’t taken the request that my mom made for something that hadn’t been successful before: liver transplantation for a MSUD patient. I am proud of whom I am now and will become, and I know my parents are proud of me, too. So, thank you for saving my life. I mean it and I owe you all so much for my gift.
Sincerely,
Jakob Jasin (JJ)
1st successful MSUD transplant recipient