Daily Iowan: Dragonfly Transplant Fund extends support to transplant patients and their families1/28/2021
 Sarah King, Floor Manager at Bread Garden Market, and Ed Brown, Co-founder of the Dragonfly Transplant Fund, exchange gift cards as the new gift card program is launched at the UIHC Transplant Center. As our volunteers with the Dragonfly Transplant Fund start fundraising in 2021, we are excited to announce that the new gift card program is finally underway! Ed Brown, co-founder of the Dragonfly Transplant Fund, has generously donated 550 $5 gift cards to Bread Garden Market to transplant patients and their families as they stay at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics' Transplant Center.
"Deb and I set up the Dragonfly Transplant Fund to give back to others," he explains. "She and I celebrated in small ways after her transplant. We left her room, I pushed her in her wheelchair, and we went to the hospital coffee shop." Now, Ed wants other families to be able to enjoy a cup of coffee, too. Read more about the Dragonfly Transplant Fund's new gift card program in the UI Health Care publication of "The Loop" via the link below.
Special Messages from the Dragonfly Transplant Fund
"Deb and Ed started the Dragonfly Transplant Fund (DTF) to honor the gift they had been given and to offer back to those in the greater transplant community where they saw a glaring need – a vision of a place for caregivers to find a nurturing environment while their love ones were recovering from transplantation. Deb enjoyed several years of good health and spirit following her transplant and she and Ed were able to live life to its fullest following her recovery. Deb is no longer with us, and while we share deeply with Ed and his family in their loss, we also share in their commitment to Deb’s unwavering legacy and see the DTF through to its completed mission. Together, they were a force of nature. The UI Organ Transplant Center and the Center for Advancement are eager to help Ed and his close circle of support in this effort."
- Dr. Alan Reed, Director of the UI Transplant Center & Alli Ingman, Assistant Vice President - Health Services Department of the University of Iowa Center for Advancement
The founders of the Dragonfly Transplant Fund, Deb and Ed Brown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, love sharing the story of their experience with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics’ Transplant Center and the Iowa Donor Network.
In early 2016, Deb was patiently awaiting a liver transplant that she and her family thought may never come. Her liver disease was affecting her everyday life to the point where emergency room trips seemed normal. Her health deteriorated at a rapid pace.
In November 2016, Deb and her family received a call that a liver had become available for Deb to receive. After an 11-hour procedure at the UIHC Transplant Center, Deb had a new liver and a new life to live....and give. “We have a life together now,” says Ed Brown. “That’s not a gift...that’s more than a gift.” Deb and her husband, Ed, have ignited passion in others and established the Dragonfly Transplant Fund via a generous gift through the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. This gift is a testament of their appreciation of their doctors, their liver donor, and their donor’s family. The mission of their gift is to enhance the need for organ and tissue donor awareness. They hope with the support of community donors that they will be able to create a lounge in the hospital for caregivers of transplant patients to be together and learn about resources that are available to them and their families as they go through the organ transplant and organ donation process. “Donation, I don’t think, is [ever] going to go away,” says Ed Brown. “Transplant is never going to go away. Let’s put something there that everybody can feel good about.” Together with the support of the medical professionals at the UIHC Transplant Center, Deb and Ed are dedicated to serving patients and their caregivers through the Dragonfly Transplant Fund. If you would like to contribute to the Dragonfly Transplant Fund’s vision, please visit http://givetoiowa.org/dragonfly.
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AuthorsVolunteers with the Dragonfly Transplant Fund established by Ed and Deb Brown are dedicated to supporting the UIHC Organ Transplant Center through giving. We share their stories, fundraising efforts, and memories here with followers, friends, and family who support the Dragonfly Transplant Fund. 
Click here to learn more about the UIHC Transplant Center in Iowa City, Iowa.Archives
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