The FBI delivers Jen a modern-day miracle.
Those who have had a loved one in need of an organ transplant, unfortunately, know too well about the grueling long wait on the UNOS list, which is a mental and emotional rollercoaster and heart-wrenching experience watching your loved one, and even worse, your child, growing weaker and slowly dying while waiting for their number to come up on the list and receive the news that their organ(s) have arrived. (UNOS – United Network for Organ Sharing. The private, non-profit organization that manages the U.S. organ transplantation system under contract with the Federal government).
They work tirelessly to optimize our nation’s transplant system to save more lives. Organ transplant by the numbers:
RIGHT NOW, 104,056 people need an organ transplant*
THIS YEAR 14,143 donors (Jan – July 2024)*
LED TO 28,359 transplants (Jan – July 2024)*
*As of 9/03/2024 UNOS
Back to our modern-day miracle, 22-year-old Jen Dunlea’s incredible story! An employee of the FBI’s family wished to donate their deceased young adult’s organs to people in need of organ transplants who are a part of the FBI family — those who have a solid connection to the FBI.
On Friday, August 17th afternoon, Laurel Wyner Dunlea’s (Jen’s mom’s) good college friend and sorority sister at the University of Delaware, Bridgit, received a digital message from her son, Luke, who works for the FBI. He noticed an important organizational email regarding an FBI employee who lost their life, and his family made the very agonizing and timely decision to donate their child’s organs to others who need this precious life-saving gift. Luke astutely messaged his family about this critical email, and Bridgit sprang into action.
Bridgit sent text and phone messages to Jen’s mom, Laurel, on the afternoon of Friday, August 16, and the ball started rolling. Many calls were quickly exchanged between the FBI’s family representative, Laurel, Bridgit, and the NYU Langone pulmonary transplant team to check if, at the very least, the blood type and body size were a match. Jen and Laurel also reached out to Jen’s step-uncle, Steven, who recently retired from the FBI, and he contacted the family’s FBI representative to vouch for Jen and his connection to her.
Saturday morning, August 17, the process of delivering the lungs to Jen, who had already been an inpatient at NYU hospital since July for worsening organ rejection disease, was in motion. Jen was wheeled into the operating room at 4:30 pm that day, and her new lungs were flown in by helicopter to NYU on the East River and delivered to the OR around 7:30 p.m.
Jen had been waiting on the lung transplant list in the Philadelphia area for over two years, and her window for a successful double-lung transplant was closing… not to mention a second transplant, which is a critical high-risk surgery.
After fighting Cystic Fibrosis (CF) her entire life, the mom and daughter duo haven’t had many breaks or good news since Jen was diagnosed at 2 ½ years old. Laurel had routinely said that CF is a ruthless chronic disease that takes no prisoners and doesn’t deliver happy endings, saying, “It’s a CF tale.”
But this rarely heard direct donation is a true miracle and a happy tale in their journey with CF. They will continue sharing their story with others, educating, creating awareness, and advocating for HOPE within and beyond CF and organ donation communities.