Westfield Native Saved By ‘Miracle’ Organ Donation

WESTFIELD, NJ — Jill Morton, who grew up in Westfied, is very familiar with the organ donation community. At a young age, her mother had been diagnosed with kidney failure, was given a new kidney but later died.

When Morton was in her 40s with two children she too found herself in the same situation. She was living in Florida at the time when she was diagnosed with kidney failure and placed on a transplant list.

She had been waiting for two years with no luck.

“A miracle happened when I went to the gym and a Christian trainer told me to start praying everyday,” Morton said.

Morton, who is Jewish, was in a “desperate spot” so she began reading the Bible. She eventually learned of an online chat room for people looking for information on transplants.

When she logged on she was immediately contacted by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who said that an unknown donor was going to give her a kidney.

On May 5, 2003 is when Morton received her new kidney. When she returned for a follow-up visit her a woman approached her and said, “Jill I am your donor.”

“She looked just like me it was so bizarre," Morton recalled. “Then she said, ‘Don’t thank me, thank Jesus.’ ”

The donor was a Christian missionary from the Australian outback and came all the way over to the U.S. to make the donation.

The donor never wanted recognition but in 2004 Morton won a gold medal at the National Kidney Foundation U.S. Transplant Games and placed it around her donor's neck.

Morton continues to do great and compete at every Transplant Game. Her athletic side came from her father, who died a few months ago in 2017.

“I feel very blessed," Morton said. “It is so inspiring to see people from around the world and don’t even speak the same language, but we all have something in common. We are transplant recipients and able to compete in the world games because of donors.”

Now Morton has made it her mission to raise awareness for the New Jersey Sharing Network to encourage others to become donors.

To date, there are 120,000 people waiting for a transplant and 22 die each day while waiting, but one organ donor can save eight lives and one tissue donor can restore health to over 75 people. In New Jersey, there are more than 4,000 people on the waiting list and one person dies every three days waiting, according to the NJ Sharing Network.

“Faith and hope were my answer in my time of desperation,” Morton said. “I don’t know why but God answered. I was given the gift of life and it’s my mission to do whatever I can to help others.”

“The donors are the heroes,” Morton said. “They are the ones that should get the accolades. We are just the very lucky recipients for their gift. But we are their voice.”

For more information on becoming an organ and tissue donor visit www.NJSharingNetwork.org.

(Image via NJ Sharing Network)

Photo 1 - Jill Morton playing golf.

Photo 2 - Jill Morton with with Michele Dabal, a liver transplant recipient from New Jersey.

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