By Rubin E. Grant
Karen Tishler Weinrib had heard about the Transplant Games of America for a quarter century, but she didn’t consider being a participant until this year.
That’s because the 2024 Transplant Games of America is coming to Birmingham July 5-10. The games is a national, festival-style, multi-sport event that brings together about 10,000 members of the transplant community.
Held every two years, the games is a celebration of life for transplant recipients, living donors, donor families, individuals on the waiting list, caregivers and transplant professionals. The games honors the legacy of donors, highlights the need for and importance of organ, eye and tissue donations, celebrates the success of transplantation and encourages others to register to be donors.
“I was extremely excited when I heard that the games were coming to Birmingham,” Weinrib said. “I had heard about them in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but this will be my first time taking part in the competition.
“It is my honor and pleasure to finally participate in the Transplant Games with Team Alabama after all these years. I’m not only a member of Team Alabama but also on the executive committee, which does a lot of fundraising and outreach.”
Team Alabama consists of transplant recipients, living donors, donor families, transplant professionals and caregivers or supporters.
Weinrib, 53, is a Mountain Brook High School graduate and former teacher at the school. She has been living in Homewood with her husband, Dan, and their son, Jack, for the past 21 years.
She received a heart transplant in December 1991 at UAB when she was a senior at Emory University in Atlanta. She is one of only a handful of UAB heart transplant recipients who have survived more than three decades past the procedure.
“UAB is one of the best heart transplant centers in the world, and I feel so very fortunate that it is in my hometown,” Weinrib said. “There is cutting-edge research, innovative care and world-class medical professionals who enabled me to continue to lead a healthy, active life.”
Because she is one of UAB’s longest-lived heart recipients, Weinrib refers to herself as a “dinosaur.” She also is a donor bone recipient and a cow valve recipient.
“I like to say that I’ve had a heart transplant and five other replacement parts,” Weinrib said. “I had the heart transplant at UAB unexpectedly during my senior year at Emory, then had three parts of my neck replaced because of a one-in-a-million benign tumor in 2010, followed seven months later by a tricuspid valve replacement. Most recently, I underwent a partial elbow replacement after I broke both elbows and had a “terrible triad” injury in my left elbow. Altogether, I feel like the Bionic Woman.”
Organ Donation Awareness
Weinrib speaks regularly about organ donation awareness for Legacy of Hope, formerly the Alabama Organ Center. April is National Donate Life Month.
“I was UAB heart transplant surgery No. 266,” Weinrib said. “That number is far above 1,000 now. When I started giving my transplant talk in the mid-1990s, around 60,000 people were on the UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) list. Now, 103,575 people are waiting in the U.S. for some kind of organ, and over 17 of them a day will die while waiting.
“It is so important that one signs one’s (driver’s) license or donor card and talk to one’s family about organ donation. Of the many causes I believe in, organ donation is the most important to me. I would not be here without the generosity of a 17-year-old African American and his family.”
Bill Ryan, president and CEO of the Transplant Games of America, also speaks to that need.
“In 2022, there were almost 44,000 organ transplants in the United States, setting a new record,” Ryan said. “This remarkable life-saving medical advancement is only possible through the selfless act of individuals who, in passing, gave others a chance to return to health.
“Living donors also help bring new life to others in need, and the Transplant Games help remind us that over 100,000 patients are on the waiting list for an organ, and dozens die every day because an organ was not available for them.”
Ryan is pleased that the games will be in Birmingham with events scheduled throughout the metro area at different venues, including the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham CrossPlex, Hoover Met Complex, Vestavia Bowl, Highland Park Golf Course and Birmingham-Southern College.
“We are thrilled to bring this event to the Birmingham community and can’t wait for our teams and their families to experience the warmth and friendship that visitors to Alabama enjoy,” he said.
Trivia Anyone?
The games include more than 20 competitions for recipients and living donors along with 60-plus special events throughout the week that provide opportunities to celebrate donors, attend lectures and workshops, and interact with friends and associates.
“What I am most looking forward to is the extra activities, such as the opening ceremony when all the teams come in,” Weinrib said. “I think Team Alabama will be the last one to come in, being the home team. I’m also looking forward to the Quarter Century Club dinner and being with the other dinosaurs.”
Although Weinrib does a variety of fitness activities daily, including walking, weightlifting, elliptical, recumbent bike, PT exercises and yoga, she’s going for a low-key event in the Transplant Games.
“I can’t throw and I can’t catch, so I am not going to do a lot of the physical events,” she said. “I will do the 5K Run/Walk. I thought about doing badminton, but my shoulder won’t let me. I’ll do Trivia Challenge instead. I used to do Scholars Bowl when I was in school and I also was a Scholars Bowl coach, so that suits me.”
For more information about the Transplant Games visit transplantgamesofamerica.org.
