[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S7964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AN EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT

  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, my concluding remarks are about an early 
Christmas present that I received this past Monday at a staff going-
away party that occurred in Florida, where all of our Florida staff 
came together to wish each other well. Little did I know that a special 
guest was going to appear. He was none other than one of the chefs of 
the catering company that was catering this holiday going-away party. 
Let me tell you the story of this 34-year-old chef and what happened 34 
years ago.
  At the time of the middle 1980s--1985 to be exact--this Senator was a 
young Congressman. A husband and wife, who were constituents of mine in 
East Central Florida, came to me in great distress because their infant 
boy had been born with a defective liver.
  The advance of medicine at that particular time was that there was no 
known cure except to do a liver transplant. Thirty-four years ago, 
organ transplants were still in their infancy, and 34 years ago, there 
was no organ registry being maintained in order to try to find a family 
who had lost a loved one so that a loved one's organs could be 
harvested and then be available for those who were on a registry 
waiting for them. None of that existed 34 years ago.
  Only since then have we seen this miraculous organization set up 
whereby people who need organ transplants can get on the list. Then, 
whenever an organ becomes available, no matter where it is in the 
country, that match--that organ--is immediately packed in ice and is 
flown to the receiving hospital where the organ transplant is going to 
occur. None of this existed. It was a catch-as-catch-can to find an 
organ to transplant. This was especially true with a liver transplant 
because a liver transplant, at the time, had to have the identical 
blood type, and it had to be the identical size of the recipient's 
liver.
  Here was a few-months'-old child who was desperately clinging to life 
and needed a liver transplant to survive. At the time, we were in 
session. There was a particularly major bill that was up, and its 
passage in the House of Representatives was in the balance--within just 
a handful of votes. The bill was proposed by President Reagan. I had 
already decided that I was going to vote for the bill, which was in 
favor of the President's position, when I saw an opportunity to maybe 
save this child's life. So I held out and declared my position as 
``undecided'' in my knowing that the votes were coming down to just one 
or two at passage.
  Actually, we must have been out for the weekend before this vote was 
to have occurred, because I received a phone call from President Reagan 
while I was at my home in Florida. The President greeted me and told me 
what he was asking me to do.
  I said to him: Mr. President, I have already decided that I am going 
to vote for the bill, and I know that it is welcome news to you. I wish 
you would do something for me--possibly save a child's life.
  I then told him the story of the need of a liver of a certain blood 
type and of a certain size for a transplant in a minor child. The 
President said he would do that.
  Shortly thereafter, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
called, who was a former colleague from the House--Secretary Margaret 
Heckler of Massachusetts. She said: At the President's request, I am 
going to have a press conference to put out this information that this 
child is in need of this specific type of transplant.
  Margaret Heckler did that. A donor was found because of that press 
release in 1985 in California. They raced that harvested organ, by jet, 
to the hospital in Pittsburgh. Ryan Osterblom, with his parents, was 
then flown to the hospital. The successful transplant occurred 34 years 
ago.
  Early last Monday, you can imagine the Christmas present I received 
when there at our going-away party for our staff, the chef of the 
catering company was none other than 34-year-old Ryan Osterblom. That 
was the best Christmas present I could have.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.

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