Family of organ donor meets recipients

LANSING, Mich. -- Two men got to meet the family of the organ donor that saved their life Wednesday in Lansing.

Joseph Steponski of Wyoming and Randy Schumacher of Ubly Michigan got to meet the Stillman family.

Their 19-year-old daughter Emily died of menningitis and donated a lung to Steponski and a kidney to Schumacher.

In February, the Wyoming man was the first patient to undergo lung transplant surgery at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.

"This is the one thing that has given me solace since Emily's death -knowing the people she saved and the lives we were able to change this is the one thing that gives me comfort," said organ donor's mother Alicia Stillman.

Schumacher and Steponski say they are now brothers of sorts and their family has grown, to include Emily's family.

Share this article: