The Call That Saves a Life

The Call That Saves a Life

Not everybody survives the wait for an organ transplant. We spoke to eight Black Americans who received a transplant. Here’s what they said.

By Anissa Durham
October 8, 2025

This article is part of “On Borrowed Time” a series by Anissa Durham that examines the people, policies, and systems that hurt or help Black patients in need of an organ transplant. Read part one here.

Every year, thousands of Americans wait for a heart, kidney, or liver that never comes. They die not only because medicine can’t always save them, but also because the longer they wait for a donor, the less likely they are to get a transplant. The system makes them wait until their bodies give out.

About 5,000 people on the transplant list die each year, even as a record 48,000 organs were transplanted last year. Nearly a quarter of those recipients were Black Americans — evidence of both the power of donation and the disproportionate need for organs in the Black community. We asked some of them what it’s like to get that call — and how donation gave them another chance at life. Here are their stories, edited for length and clarity.

Etta Samuel, 72
Retired, Atlanta 

Heart Transplant Recipient
March 27, 2025

I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2016. They tried to give me a pump to walk around with in my hand, but I didn’t like that. This year, I told the doctor I prefer the transplant. He said I would have to get on the waiting list and stay in the hospital until the transplant.

That’s what I did. I went in one week and they told me they have a heart. In my mind, I had conditioned myself to stay a couple of weeks or months before I got a heart. It was a miracle. I was rejoicing because it came so fast. 

I didn’t like the way I was feeling. I kept running to the hospital all the time. I still wanted to do it. I’m still in pain. I’m still a little weak, but I accept it and let my body heal. I have different nurses who come four times a week. They push me.

Life is sweet. You don’t want to die just like that. I kept thinking, I’m probably gonna die. Now, I’m looking forward to getting better. I want to live. 

Ieesha Johnson, 47
Director of Community Outreach at Infinite Legacy
District Heights, Maryland

Tissue Transplant Recipient
August, 25, 2013

In 2013, I was running a Tough Mudder race. It is not for the weak, and I fell. As I tried to climb over a 12-foot wall, I could not move my hand. I went to the ER, and they did an X-ray, and the doctor showed me a picture of my hand. It was a big black hole. So, I talked to the orthopedic surgeon, and he said it could be cancer. When I fell [during the race], all the bones shattered in my left hand. The mass was breaking down my bone, and I had no idea.

https://videopress.com/embed/YaHWfjoo?cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=1&hd=0Ieesha Johnson photographed outside of Infinite Legacy in Baltimore, Maryland on August 13, 2025. CREDIT: Shernay Willams for Word In Black.

He said I can do a biopsy, which is just as invasive as surgery. Or we could do a surgery to replace the mass with a donor bone or bone from my thigh. So I woke up from surgery, cancer-free, and I am a bone recipient. 

Dr. Brittany Clayborne, 40
Motivational Speaker and Psychologist, Dallas

Heart Transplant Recipient
January 14, 2018

At 26, I had my son Micah and had a heart attack during labor in 2010. It led to heart failure. They diagnosed it at the time as peripartum cardiomyopathy. When he was about 2, I had to get a pacemaker and defibrillator put in because I was having a lot of spells of dizziness and lightheadedness.

When he turned 4, I started dying. From December 2014 to December 2015, my heart stopped completely. I died about six times and got shocked back to life. That’s the point where they decided not only to get me listed for a heart transplant, but also to have me wait for the transplant in the hospital. I was in the hospital for nine months waiting for my transplant. I had an LVAD implanted in August of 2016, and I got to leave the hospital. I lived on a mechanical heart for a year and a half.

In January 2018, I woke up and decided I was done fighting. I called my best friend, and I said, ‘I’m really tired of being in this fight. I want to quit. I want to throw in the towel.’ I happened to be in the hospital because something happened with my LVAD. My soul was getting tired. My friend told me to hang in there one more day.

In December 2018, I was diagnosed with post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a cancer that is a side effect of the transplant. Between my liver and my spleen, there were about 300 cancerous lesions. It’s a blood cancer. There were huge portions of it in my lymph nodes. One really, really big instance of it next to my heart. It was everywhere.

I did six sessions of chemo. I did radiation every day for two weeks. I was declared cancer-free in early 2022. And things were great and wonderful. And then in December 2023, my then-13-year-old told me he was having chest pain, and he was placed on the transplant list with his heart working at 7%. Once Micah was diagnosed, doctors realized we have a rare genetic disorder called Danon disease.

Micah Clayborne, 15
High School Student, Dallas

Heart Transplant Recipient
October 14, 2024

I was playing tennis at my school. I kept sweating profusely. Whenever I came home, I had to sit down for 20 minutes or so. It was like my heart was delayed. 

After six months, I brought it up to my mom. She asked if I wanted to play football. I said no, I have chest pain. So we went to the hospital. I was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I like a lot of physical contact sports. Now I can’t play football anymore. I was prepared to be on the transplant list for five to six years. But I was on the list for 10 months. Because Momma had gone through it, I wasn’t scared to go through it. 

Seeing the scar [after transplant surgery] for the first time was really annoying. There were a lot of wires. I couldn’t have friends over. But it was such a relief that I got my transplant.

I started Transplant Teenz, a support network for teens ages 12-18, while on the waitlist. We give teens a space where they can heal and talk to others like them. We talk about games, football, and normal teenager stuff. But the main purpose is to give teens a space where they are surrounded by people who are similar to them.

Craig Merritt, 54
Podcast Host, Stockbridge, Georgia

Kidney Transplant Recipient
November 6, 2023

I was at a routine doctor’s appointment. I was congested, really bad. When the nurse took my vitals, she noticed my blood pressure was extremely high. I was referred to a nephrologist. They did a kidney biopsy and discovered I had scar tissue on my kidneys. I was diagnosed with stage 3 FSGS kidney failure in 2000. I was only 29.

I was a project manager — juggling different projects and up late at night. I had a very poor diet, and I suffered from headaches a lot. I would take NSAIDs [drugs like Advil]. I took BC [pain relief] powders religiously. Even if I thought I was going to have a headache on the ride home from work, I would take one before I left. Ultimately, that caused kidney damage. 

At the end of 2017, my kidney disease progressed. I was listed [for a transplant] at Emory Hospital. Now I was in end-stage renal failure, stage five, and it was time for dialysis. A social worker helped me understand that it’s best for me to get on multiple transplant lists. I got listed at three different transplant facilities.

A lot of patients don’t know they have rights. I fired a couple of doctors. I said, ‘Listen, this isn’t working out — you’re fired.’ Some would even chuckle. I said, ‘I’m not laughing.’

Every time there was a new nurse or a new doctor, I would set expectations. Literally. Some of them considered me an asshole. I’m OK with that, because it’s my life we’re talking about. You’re not going to play with it or experiment with it. So if I got to be an asshole about me, then that’s my title.

I’m a different cat. Let’s partner together. I’m gonna do what I’m supposed to do, because I don’t want to be here. I hate being here.

https://videopress.com/embed/riwMjn3X?cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=1&hd=0Craig Merritt, 54, at Mickey D. Cochran Park in Atlanta, GA on August 25, 2025. CREDIT: Rita Harper for Word In Black

Fast forward to 2023. They see a small mass on my right kidney, and they’re saying this is cancer. In July 2023, I had a nephrectomy. I’m back on dialysis. I’m wiped out. This has been going on for four years. In November, I got a call — ‘Mr. Merritt, we got a kidney for you.’ It was surreal. I was in a state of shock. I was numb.

Jazmin Evans, 31
Ph.D. Student, Philadelphia

Kidney Transplant Recipient
July 4, 2023

In 2012, I was a senior in high school. One of the mandates for our sports teams was to get a physical. During that physical, they found protein in my urine. That isn’t really normal. My primary care doctor referred us to a nephrologist. And that’s when I was diagnosed with stage three chronic kidney disease. One of my kidneys didn’t grow all the way.

It wasn’t fun. I started dialysis at 25. Being that young is a very weird feeling. You don’t get to do the things that your peers get to do. You have this new responsibility to take care of your health. There are thoughts of mortality. I wanted my life to go back to normal. I am the only one of my friends and family that has gone through kidney failure.

Even though they didn’t have the words, they had the presence, they had the empathy. They helped me to reframe — this is difficult, but it’s not forever. My therapist is and was an instrumental part of that community. 

It was July 3. I was in my kitchen making a crunchwrap supreme, the ones from Taco Bell, but a homemade version. And I got the call. I had the number of the transplant center saved in my phone as ‘Your kidney is calling.’ I’m in the kitchen, cooking, and watching “Girlfriends,” and I see those words flash across the screen. 

And July 4 is when I got my transplant. I was supposed to go see [Beyoncé’s tour] “Renaissance” in Philadelphia the next week. I had a pit ticket. I was so excited. But I wasn’t able to attend. Very graciously, I got an invite from Parkwood [Entertainment] to attend the birthday show that she had in September in Los Angeles. I went, and it was a really amazing experience.

Andrew Jones, 35
Community Program Leader at New England Donor Services
New Britain, Connecticut 

Heart Transplant Recipient
September 21, 2016

I began strength training shortly before college. I became obsessed with being able to change my body and make goals to look better and feel better. I didn’t have issues until halfway through college. I found myself not just with strep throat but conjunctivitis, and it was compounded by the flu. This went on for two months. 

The bacteria that causes strep throat has the ability to infiltrate cardiac tissue and attack your heart. Cardiac tissue does not regenerate. Once you lose it, it’s gone. I slipped into heart failure. A cardiologist diagnosed me with viral myocarditis. I was put on two medications. I was 22 years old. Then, things got worse.

Shortly after graduating, I was in heart failure. I couldn’t go to the gym anymore. I was depressed, very sick, and just living in my bedroom. In 2015, I had a defibrillator implanted in my upper left chest. I continued to deteriorate despite being in the ICU. When I was told I needed an LVAD, it definitely broke my heart. I lived by the grace of that machine for a year and one month. 

I got my transplant on September 21, 2016. A year after my transplant, I was in stage two rejection. It changed the course of my care, but we got it under control. At one of my appointments, they found a clot that formed where they had sewn in the new heart. So, I went in for a third open-heart surgery. 

Freshly out of transplant, I was taking almost 40 pills a day. It was separated into three dosages throughout the day. Immunosuppressants, prednisone, antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial, statin for my cholesterol, all types of stuff — it was a lot of pills. I had a big pill box. Now, I take just over 20 pills a day.

I went from being a naive supporter of organ donation to being a full, balls-to-the-wall, everybody needs to be an organ donor. Whether you are a supporter of it or not, it still deserves a conversation.

Bobby Howard, 61
Director of Multicultural Donation Education Program at LifeLink Foundation
Atlanta

Kidney Transplant Recipient
October 25, 1994

I had a tremendous headache one day. My blood pressure was high. My brother and sister-in-law knew enough to call 911. They got me to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease. It had already progressed to stage five. I started dialysis at the beginning of December 1993. I was placed on the list in March 1994. 

Ironically, I was coaching high school football. I got a call, and they found a kidney for me. I was so overjoyed, I forgot to call someone to take me to the hospital, because I jumped in my car and started driving myself. I had to make a U-turn and make a phone call to a friend.

I was 25 minutes from the hospital. But it seemed like that 25 minutes was about a five-hour drive. It’ll be 31 years on October 25, 2025. It’s changed me tremendously. I truly understand the value of life and a proper diet. It just really opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t see before.

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Anissa Durham reported this story as one of the 2025 U.S. Health System Reporting fellows supported by the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Commonwealth Fund. The Commonwealth Fund also supports Word In Black’s health reporting.