Former Packer John Brockington receives 'Gift of Life' from future wife

(Manitowoc Herald Times - Valders - June 11, 2004) - By PAUL KEUP

There was no way John Brockington could simply turn around and walk away from the problem.

The former Green Bay Packers' running back received a life-saving kidney transplant from his future wife, Diane Scott, on Nov. 28, 2001, but his fight for organ donation awareness didn't end that day.

"There's no reason for me to sit here after I got my second chance and not give someone else a second chance," said John Brockington, a three-time Pro Bowl selection with the Packers. "... I know this is going to be my (mission) for the rest of my life."

That charge brought Brockington, 55, to Autumn Ridge Golf Course on Thursday for a golf outing to benefit The John Brockington Foundation and the National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin.

Joining him in the cause is Diane, 56, who was the first person in line to donate one of her two kidneys when her friend became gravely ill in the summer of 2000.

"I don't think I am unusual," said Diane, who married John on Aug. 16, 2003, 10 years after their fateful meeting in San Diego.

"If someone came to you and said, 'If you undergo a very simple, non-life threatening procedure which will never have any side effects, would you do it to save this person from dialysis?'

"I think all of us have a list of people we would do that for."

But the real list the Brockingtons are concerned about is the waiting list.

There currently are 85,351 patients waiting for an organ transplant, with 58,395 in need of a kidney.

About 17 people die each day awaiting any organ transplant, which is why The John Brockington Foundation was founded in 2002.

"We just want to stand in front of a room full of people and say, 'Please, please, please donate your organs when the time comes,' " Diane Brockington said. "If that's while you're alive, good for you. If that's not while you're alive, that's good, too."

The Foundation is grateful for the support of former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who now is Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush Administration.

"It doesn't make any sense to take these organs to the grave," John Brockington said. "As Tommy Thompson said (in April), 'If your eyes could vote, wouldn't they want to keep on seeing? If your heart could vote, wouldn't it want to keep on beating. God wants your soul, not your body.'

"And it's true."

John Brockington also helped Wisconsin become the first - and still the only - state to pass a law granting a tax break for "live" organ donors.

The law allows such donors to deduct up to $10,000 of expenses from donor-related travel and lost wages from their state income taxes.

It helps reduce excuses for donating organs in a procedure like Diane did for John.

"If you want to help someone, do it," John Brockington said. "It's the gift of life that you can't put a price-tag on. You'll feel so good about it; it's unbelievable. You'll see someone come back to life, just like water to a wilted flower."

John speaks from experience, as he was diagnosed with renal failure in June 2000, but his symptoms - urinating too frequently, urge to urinate but unable to do so, sweating (edema), fatigue (anemic), and swelling - surfaced at least a year before.

"It starts cascading, and it gets progressively worse and you can die," John Brockington said. "When they finally (diagnosed) me, they said I was in extreme renal failure, and the potassium in my body was so high I could have a heart attack at any minute.

"That's how close I was to meeting the grim reaper."

Very close, indeed.

"The toxin-level in my body was 44.4, and it should be about 1.5, 1.6," John Brockington said. "They told me there was no biological reason I should be alive: 'We've never seen anybody with numbers like this on this side of the grave. We could write a paper on your condition.' "

He recovered, though, and starting Sept. 18, 2001 he underwent six weeks of dialysis (four hours a day, three days a week).

Had it not been for Diane, John probably still would be waiting for a cadaver transplant, which has an average wait of four and a half years.

This is where John's belief of providence is reinforced.

Providence, according to Webster's Dictionary, is "divine guidance or care; God conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny."

That definition precisely matches the Brockingtons' experience:

Diane and John both frequented a deli in San Diego's Little Italy.

An employee there suggested they meet since she was a Packers' fan - from her days growing up along the Wisconsin-Illinois border before attending graduate school at Marquette University - and he was her favorite player.

A friendship quickly started, a romance later ignited before being doused by religious differences, but she came to his rescue when his illness started.

"Little did I know," John Brockington said, "she was my lifeline."

Paul Keup can be reached at pkeup@htrnews.com or (920) 686-2134.

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