On March 28, 2000, Jose Carlos Oseguera was one of three people killed by a deadly storm that hit North Texas. Eighteen years later, Oseguera’s kidney lives on in soon to be 62-year-old John Sudbay.
“With all the sirens going off and everything happening (to think) that a life would be lost and I would get an organ, that was not in my realm of thinking,” said Sudbay.
A baseball-sized piece of hail hit and killed Oseguera, two others were also killed when an EF-3 tornado hit downtown Fort Worth.
At the time, Sudbay had been on dialysis for six years. Not long after the tornado, he got a page and was told to get to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth as fast as possible.
“There was still debris falling, there were officers down here that had everything blocked off,” Sudbay said, describing the scene downtown as he made his way to the hospital that day.
Years later, Sudbay says he thinks of Oseguera every day and even has his picture taped to his bathroom mirror.
“He’s always be with me because I wouldn’t be able to do it without him,” said Sudbay.
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Sudbay hopes Oseguera’s story will help inspire future organ donation. The gift of Oseguera’s kidney, he says, has given him a life that otherwise would not have been possible.
MORE: OrganDonor.gov
