Sam Kribbs
Expressing Gratitude With Renewed Life
As his six-month follow-up appointment approached, Sam Kribbs sat down with pen and paper. The Blue Springs, Mo. resident had a new lease on life after his lung transplant in February 2014. He was able to take a beach vacation with his wife for the first time. He was taking a full course load for a master’s degree from Nazarene Theological Seminary. For the first time in his life, he was able to work out and feel that positive, energetic ‘runner’s high.’
Feeling great and having few bumps in his road to recovery, Sam sat down to write … to say thank you. ‘It was important for them to know, wherever they are in their journey, that I’m grateful,’ Sam said of his Donor’s family. ‘I understood, as best I can, that these lungs came from a person with a family that loves them. I wanted them to know, in the joy and celebration of my life, what they gave me is never taken for granted, and it’s certainly not forgotten.’
Sam became one of the first residents of the Family House in December 2013. No more six-hour round trips from Blue Springs for appointments at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. No worrying about weather delaying their trip if Sam received the call during a snow storm. He and Katie were two miles from the transplant center.
Sam and his wife, Katie, lived at the Family House for about two months when Sam’s cell phone rang at 8:15 p.m. with a number he associates with his transplant team. He thought the call was a follow-up on some medication or a test. It was the call.
At a young age, Sam was diagnosed at birth with cystic fibrosis. Until the age of 23, he had been admitted to the hospital only once for cystic fibrosis-related complications. At 23, his condition deteriorated. When oral medications were once sufficient in managing sicknesses that entered the lungs, Sam now needed intravenous medications.
Over the next few years, Sam was in and out of the hospital so often that he lost his job and qualified for Social Security disability. ‘In some ways, that was a blessing,’ Sam said. ‘It opened up the opportunity to go back to school and get a second degree. I ended up feeling a calling to go into ministry.’
That calling led him to Katie. They met while attending classes at Nazarene Theological Seminary. While working on a group project, Sam asked Katie to lunch. Both unsure if lunch was a date, it became an eight-hour lunch/walk around Kansas City in March. One month later, they were engaged. The couple planned to marry in October, but Sam’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the spring so they moved the wedding up to May.
Sam’s prognosis turned for the worse before the planned wedding date. While he had been sick through much of the summer, he felt well enough to attend the Kansas City Royal’s final home game of the 2013 season. ‘We caught a ball,’ Katie said.
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