FROM A1
A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, MAy 1, 2019
LIFE
Continued from Page A1
her in too. Her death hit the fam-
ily hard.
Toelle-Jackson said the idea of
donating Rylee’s organs pulled at
her and her husband.
“While we were suffering and
there would be no miracle for us,
perhaps Rylee could be a miracle
for others,” Toelle-Jackson said.
As she talked she glanced up
at Rylee’s quilt square. Each of
the patches around her beautiful
daughter held another tale of loss
and hope.
“Each block is much more
than pieces of fabric,” said Aimee
Adelmann, director of educa-
tion and outreach at Donate Life
Northwest, which organized the
event. “It is a way to continue to
tell stories of how many people
have been impacted by organ, eye
and tissue donation.”
Joining Toelle-Jackson on Sat-
urday were two local heart recip-
ients who had also made quilt
squares.
Phil Weitz had a heart trans-
plant in 2012 after a massive heart
attack. The tall Umatilla resident
with glasses and a goatee said
he survived with the aid of a left
ventricle assist device until the
transplant.
Weitz moved temporarily to
Spokane to be close in case a heart
came available. He said he was
grocery shopping one day when
he got a call from the medical
team.
“Are you ready to come to the
hospital for a transplant?” the
caller asked, and Weitz felt the
ground fall from under him. He
looked down at his full cart and
said, “What do I do with all this
food? I’m getting a heart trans-
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Heart recipient Cindy McIntyre, of Hermiston, stands in front of the Threads of Life quilt, unveiled Saturday at the
Pendleton Center for the Arts.
plant.” An employee told him just
to go and some of the shoppers
clapped as he left the store.
After his transplant, he felt
grateful to the donor, but no guilt.
“They told me I might have
sorrow and grief because someone
died and I had lived,” Weitz said.
“I felt no guilt because I didn’t
end his life. I felt blessed and
gifted because of this man.”
Weitz later met his donor’s
sister and brother, who came to
Umatilla to meet him and listen to
his heart. He learned the man died
after falling off a curb and hitting
his head.
“You never know when you
get up each morning,” Weitz said.
“We take our days for granted.”
Cindy McIntyre, of Hermis-
ton, spoke after Weitz. McIntyre’s
odyssey started one day in the car
with her husband Steve. Sudden
fatigue washed over her and she
laid her head back.
“Steve looked over at me and
I had a beet-red face, eyes rolled
back and I was foaming at the
mouth,” she said. “He hit me in
the chest, which apparently got
my heart started again.”
He ran red lights to get her to
Good Shepherd Medical Center.
She learned she was in conges-
tive heart failure from previously
undiagnosed hypoplastic left heart
syndrome, a congenital defect.
She had 56 more episodes in the
following months and believes
she was only hours from death
when a heart came available.
“A couple of hours later I
would have been a goner,” McIn-
tyre said. “Then my doctor called
and asked, ‘How would you like a
new heart tonight?’”
Five years later, she looks
healthy. Both she and Weitz tell
their stories as volunteers for
Donate Life Northwest to moti-
vate others to mark yes on the
organ donation box on their driv-
er’s licenses.
Adelmann said representatives
from the organization spend time
at Oregon Department of Motor
Vehicles offices around the North-
west, informing employees about
organ donation so they can answer
the public’s questions or refer
them.
“Ninety-nine percent of reg-
istrations come from the DMV,”
she said. “They do a lot of really
important work.”
The organization also brings
the quilt into various DMVs so
customers can get a more per-
sonal look at organ donation and
its aftermath.
Toelle-Jackson said she doesn’t
regret the decision to donate
Rylee’s organs.
“Driving home the three hours
without her was the hardest thing
we have ever done, but knowing
she has given three other families
some hope gives some purpose to
our loss and pain,” she said.
“Being able to donate has
helped our family. Even in the
darkest hour, there lives hope.”
To learn more about organ dona-
tion, visit www.donatelifenw.org
or call toll-free 1-800-452-1369.
Gun sanctuary proposal misses target
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Gun rights activists are propos-
ing a new ordinance to make Uma-
tilla County the gun-toting land of
the free. But county officials counter
the proposal is unconstitutional.
County voters in November
passed the Second Amendment
Preservation Ordinance restricting
the county from using resources to
enforce state or federal laws that
infringe on the constitutional right
to keep and bear arms. The ordi-
nance also designates the sheriff as
the authority to decide what is and
what is not constitutional.
Jesse Bonifer of Athena wants
the Umatilla County Board of
Commissioners to refer a Second
Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance
to the voters to supersede the one
they approved five months ago. He
said the proposal cuts out the lan-
guage making the sheriff the arbi-
ter of the law and puts the authority
in the hands of the people. The new
sanctuary ordinance asserts “all
local, state, and federal acts, orders,
rules or regulations regarding fire-
arms, firearms accessories, and
ammunition or a violation of the
second amendment,” local govern-
ments have the authority to refuse
to work with state and federal gun
laws, and they can proclaim a “Sec-
ond Amendment Sanctuary for
law-abiding citizens and their cities
and counties.”
Murdock, the board chairman,
said the county is not referring this
to the voters.
“Our assessment is we cannot
put it on the ballot because it’s not
constitutional,” he said.
That is the recommendation
of county counsel Doug Olsen,
who explained the law in Oregon
requires measures to include the full
text, but the proposal does not item-
ize all it would do.“So by doing that,
you don’t know what you’re voting
for,” he said. “It’s not sufficient to
know what you are adopting.”
That is the primary reason the
Columbia County Clerk’s Office in
January rejected an initiative peti-
tion to put the sanctuary ordinance
on the ballot there.
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