PHILADELPHIA \u2014 A special meeting was held in Philadelphia for two families linked through an eye-opening transplant.<\/p>\n
Debbie Krigstein’s vision was restored following a cornea transplant, and she got a chance to meet the donor family, the Cowans, for the first time Friday.<\/p>\n
Krigstein says it feels like she has a new family.<\/p>\n
Chad Cowan died five years ago on Valentine’s Day at the age of 47 from a heart attack. His wife, Crystal Cowan, says that’s when she also learned he was an organ donor.<\/p>\n
“He had 20\/20 vision, and I said he would want us to donate his corneas,” Crystal Cowan said.<\/p>\n
One went to Krigstein, whose vision had become blurry from previous procedures.<\/p>\n
“I still don’t know how to say thank you, other than ‘thank you,'” Krigstein said.<\/p>\n
The newly bonded families quickly learn they have a lot in common \u2014 both the Cowans and Krigstein are Eagles fans.<\/p>\n
The transplant was organized by AltruVision, a medical company that handles donated corneas. It also hosts workshops at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia, where volunteers make butterflies for transplant families.<\/p>\n
“The butterfly in the transplant community represents new life, new hope, which is exactly what transplantation does,” Jim Quirk, AltruVision’s CEO, said.<\/p>\n
Brandon Cowan is one of Chad’s two sons.<\/p>\n
“Occasionally, I’ll see butterflies,” Brandon Cowan said, “and I’ll think of my father.”<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the day after meeting Krigstein, who received his dad’s cornea, Brandon Cowan will be getting married.<\/p>\n
“We’re excited,” Brandon Cowan said.<\/p>\n
Especially now, knowing part of his father lives on. The circle of life continues with love.<\/p>\n
And love will be the theme of the day Saturday, where Chad Cowan’s memory will be a huge presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 A special meeting was held in Philadelphia for two families linked through an eye-opening transplant. Debbie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2593,2592,1510,1057,2595,2594,837,296,139,69,71,70,2597,2598,726,2596,1704,2599,1133],"class_list":{"0":"post-29444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-cars","9":"tag-classifieds","10":"tag-family","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-homes","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-local","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","19":"tag-philadelphia-news","20":"tag-radio","21":"tag-salt-lake","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-television","24":"tag-traffic","25":"tag-utah","26":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}