Reg Green Captures the Transformative Power of Organ Donation
Some moments in life change your worldview forever. For Reg Green, that moment happened in 1994 while on a family vacation in Italy. On the main road south of Naples, highway bandits fired two shots into the Green family’s rental car, mistaking it for a jewelry delivery vehicle. When the family stopped at the scene of an unrelated accident to summon the Italian authorities, they realized the dire truth. “When the interior light came on, my son Nicholas didn’t move,” says Green.
The robbers’ bullet had struck seven-year-old Nicholas Green while he was sleeping in the back seat, and lodged at the base of his brain. He was rushed to the hospital in a coma, but after two days all brain activity ceased. It was then, in a foreign country facing the grief of every parent’s worst nightmare, the Greens courageously decided to donate Nicholas’ organs. He saved the lives of five Italians, four of whom were teenagers, and granted eyesight to two parents of young children.
After this single act of compassion Nicholas became a national hero in Italy, and his story spread across the globe. In Italy organ donations rates tripled, a trend the press called the “Nicholas Effect.” Reg, a retired journalist, dedicated his life to the cause of organ and tissue donation. "Since Nicholas passed, I’ve spent my life, every waking moment I can, working to promote organ and tissue donation,” says Green, who travels constantly to do interviews, give speeches and attend dedications and memorials.
In 1999 Green wrote The Nicholas Effect, focusing on the story and the effects of the widespread press coverage that followed his son’s death. A traditional house published the book, and the story produced the made-for-television movie, “Nicholas’ Gift,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis.
Stories of Hope, Renewal and Transformation
In 2006, Green began compiling individual stories about the lesser-known aspects of organ donation and those affected by the process. “Nobody else has done a book like this. Almost all of the books focus on the recipients. These books don’t tell the human stories of those who make organ donation possible: the donation coordinators, surgeons, ICU nurses and doctors,” says Green.
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The result,The Gift that Heals, illuminates the behind-the-scene heroes of organ and tissue donation and reveals how these integral roles work together. “There are these widely different experiences with organ donation. People know somebody gets better, but there are lots of other things that make that happen,” says Green. The Gift that Heals tells the story of the nurses who have to take a deep breath and ask families in lonely hospital rooms, at the worst moments of their lives, to make a decision about something they have never thought of before; the pilot of the aircraft who, every time the phone rings, has to deliver the organs in a race against time; and transplant surgeons who, after hundred of operations, are still awed when a donated organ is put inside a dying patient and springs to life. |
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When Green began looking for a publisher for The Gift that Heals, he faced a more skeptical market than he had with The Nicholas Effect. The publishers liked the well-written and insightful book, but were wary of the subject. “Organ donation is not a subject many people think about; if they do, it often sounds rather repellent,” says Green. The large publishing houses told Green they couldn’t market the book to a wide audience, and were unable to publish his work. “The United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the U.S. organ sharing system, had asked me to write this book,” says Green. “We decided if it is going to be this difficult to publish, we wanted to do it ourselves.”
From Manuscript to Print: Experience, Simplicity and Speed
Green and UNOS began researching their options for self-publishing and found AuthorHouse to be the best fit for the work. For them, AuthorHouse stood out because of its combination of experience and simplicity. “AuthorHouse had a professional service and the experience of publishing thousands of books,” says Green. “They made it simple by laying out all of the expectations and each step of the process.”
Green discussed the self-publishing process with Travis Trestler, his author services representative. “Travis was very enthusiastic and willing to help; he was very sincere and offered all the support I needed, and it gave us confidence to self-publish,” says Green.
Trestler fondly recalls Green’s publishing experience. “Reg was very familiar with the publishing world, having been a writer most all of his life,” says Travis. “He took his time and was methodical when asking questions regarding the publishing process. It took a few months, with many calls and e-mails back and forth, and Reg then made the decision that AuthorHouse was the right choice for his book project.” Travis was particularly passionate about his work on the project because of the book’s message. “I wanted to do everything in my power to help bring this book to life,” he says. “I feel that the stories within these pages will make a real difference in individual lives.”
Green chose the Rapid Release publishing program for the book and submitted the manuscript during the last week of October. The book was complete within a month and copies were ready for the holiday selling season. “I was very pleased that the production process went so fast,” he says.
Once the book was launched, Green immediately began to promote The Gift that Heals by putting a human face on organ donation. “When you get to the first barrier of covering the basic facts of organ and tissue donation, people aren’t responsive. When they realize all the real-life stories, and how life comes out of death, almost everyone gets interested,” says Green, who has already been interviewed by newspapers, television and radio stations across the U.S.
In the interviews, Green often speaks about how Nicholas became the catalyst that changed the way the world understands organ and tissue donation. There’s no doubt that Nicholas’ spirit continues to live on today, not only in the seven organ and cornea recipients who have new lives, but also in the message of hope his father has spread around the globe. As one young woman wrote in a note to Green, “When you go to the little graveyard place please say this to him: ‘They closed your eyes, but you opened mine.’ ”
For more information, please visit www.nicholasgreen.org.
