Jason York

Not all heroes are big and strong, heroes come in all shapes and sizes. A hero is a hero because of the qualities they show, qualities like, in my hero, courage, faith, and moral direction. Courage by definition is the state of mind or spirit that allows one to face danger and fear. Faith is confidence in truth, value and trustworthiness. And lastly, moral direction is doing what you think is correct.

Saylor Kirkpatrick a newborn baby girl from Wilmington, Delaware was born in November 2003 with liver disease and needed a liver transplant. Without it she would die. The doctors could not find an infant donor and neither of her parents could donate a liver because their livers where too big. The donor had to weigh at most 115 pounds, and have type O blood. Jason York, 29 years old, 115 pounds and five feet ten inches tall, knew Saylor’s father only a little from high school. He heard about Saylor from his wife. He and his wife had lost a baby who was stillborn years earlier. He could not stand for another family to go through what his family had gone through. He offered to give his liver. The doctors said they still hoped to find an infant donor, but on a Thursday in January, the Kirkpatrick family got the call that Saylor might not make it through the weekend without the transplant. Jason York got the call while he was at work. The operation would last four to five hours, and if all went well, Jason would be out of work for six weeks while the liver regenerated itself. The surgeon explained that there were serious risks in the surgery - infection, hemorrhaging, and complications from anesthesia. Jason could die.

Within hours, Jason was on a plane for Wilmington. “I’ve had almost thirty good years” he said to his wife “But Saylor hasn’t had a chance to live at all”. At the hospital, Jason peered over the crib railing, looking at Saylor. “Hey there,” he said in his thick Kentucky drawl.”Im gonna save you.” The surgery began at noon the next day, during which Jason started hemorrhaging and required four units of blood. After the operation was complete, Jason’s frame had swelled 140 pounds from the fluids. He was on a morphine drip, and unable to breathe without a respirator. The first words he said when the doctors removed the tube where “How’s Saylor?” The Kirkpatrick family was in tears. “She’s doing fine,” they said. Saylor Kirkpatrick is now healthy, and weighs about 11 pounds, although she is taking medicine so her body does not reject the liver. She loves to lie on her back, laughing as she watches the family’s two dogs.

Jason York was a hero to others because he didn’t know this girl at all, and he risked his life to save her. He was also a hero to the Kirkpatrick family by saving their little girl. Jason didn’t think about dying; only about saving baby Saylor, he wasn’t afraid of hemorrhaging, and complications from anesthesia, or infection. He didn’t want the Kirkpatrick family to go through what he and his wife had to, losing a child.

Jason York wasn’t the biggest and strongest of all people, but I still think him to be a hero. I think him a hero because he showed the heroic qualities, courage, faith, and moral direction. Risking his life to save a girl he didn’t know at all showed courage. In his first meeting with Saylor he showed faith in saying “I’m gonna save you”. Jason showed moral direction in giving up his liver to save a dying baby girl.