Miles for Maddog honors organ donors, recipients in memory of 18-year-old Frankfort donor

Nancy Healy, of Tinley Park, came in second place for her age group in the Miles for Maddog 5K race Saturday, but she said the most moving moment came during the luncheon.

Healy, whose 29-year-old son, Frank, died of hypotensive cardiovascular disease Aug. 14, 2020, said she met a man who was a tissue donor recipient. That resonated with her, she said, because Frank donated tissue.

“I’ll never forget what the man said. He said ‘It wasn’t life enhancing. It was life changing,’” Healy said. “I left there feeling more comforted and it made me feel a little lighter.”

The Maddog Strong Foundation held its third annual Miles of Maddog 5K/10K run and walk in Frankfort to celebrate the hearts and soles of organ and tissue donation, said the foundation’s board of directors President Cyndi Grobmeier.

The foundation was created in August 2019 to educate people about the importance of organ and tissue donation, which is what Maddie “Maddog” Grobmeier did after she died June 30, 2019, the day after her 18th birthday, Grobmeier said.

“It has given us an opportunity to keep her and her name alive, and it gives us purpose,” Grobmeier said.

Grobmeier, Maddie’s mother, said Maddie survived a terrible car accident three months before she died. While driving with two friend to gymnastics practice, Maddie’s car was sideswiped and rolled three times near the intersection of St. Francis and La Grange roads in Frankfort, she said.

The three girls survived, Grobmeier said. After the accident, Maddie told her parents that if something terrible happened to her again, and she didn’t survive, she wanted to donate her organs, Grobmeier said.

Maddie was diagnosed with asthma at 18 months, and while she needed to carry an emergency inhaler, she was still an active child and teenager, Grobmeier said.

On June 27, 2019, Maddie went to a concert and told her friends that she wasn’t feeling well and went to the bathroom, Grobmeier said. Someone found her unresponsive with her emergency inhaler in hand, she said, which lead the family and doctors to believe she had a serious asthma attack.

Maddie was taken to the hospital, but three days later was declared brain-dead, Grobmeier said. The family then asked the doctors about initiating the organ donation process.

“We wanted to honor her wishes,” Grobmeier said.

Maddie’s heart and liver went to one person and two people each got one of her kidneys, Grobmeier said. Her corneas went to two people, and 11 people received tissue donations.

The two biggest misconceptions about organ donation, Grobmeier said, are that older people can’t donate and that emergency response crews won’t save an organ donor’s life. Anyone over 18 can be a donor, Grobmeier said, and medical crews always focus on saving lives.

The Miles For Maddog event is the foundation’s largest fundraising event, Grobmeier said, and this year about 50 people participated in the 10K and about 350 people did the 5K.

This year, more donor families participated, Grobmeier said. Many were local, but some came from out of state, like a man from Texas who participated to honor his wife, who became a donor after dying in a sky diving accident, she said.

Another new feature this year, Grobmeier said, was the luncheon for donor and recipient families to share a meal and talk.

Maddie enjoyed participating in mud runs and fundraising run walk events, Grobmeier said.

“She would love that this is the event we did in her honor,” Grobmeier said. “She would be thrilled.”