Deacon Lawrence J. Bailey was a kidney transplant recipient, husband, father and a fervent advocate for organ and tissue donation. Thanks to his selfless decision to join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry, he helped save and heal multiple lives through tissue donation at the end of his own life.
“When he got his kidney transplant, he recognized how great of a gift it was,” said his daughter Jessica. “In our community, it was just not something that was talked about or widely accepted. My dad felt that it was necessary to dispel those myths and share his story.”
Deacon Bailey’s advocacy started In 2014, when he was one of four Detroit-area clergymen appointed to launch the Angels for Life program through Gift of Life’s Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP). He was a frequent volunteer, attending community events, educating others to join the Donor Registry and sharing his story anywhere he could. For his work, he earned a Shining Star Award from the Michigan Secretary of State.
“Any time he shared his story, he ended it by saying the same thing,” Jessica shared. “He would say, ‘don’t die and take your organs to heaven, because heaven knows we need them down here.”
On April 6, 2024, Jessica took her father to the emergency room. Visits to the hospital had become very frequent over the previous few months, and Jessica didn’t think this time was any different. After getting him settled in a room she left to check in on her mother, who battles dementia.
An hour later, she received a call that a code blue was called to Deacon Bailey’s room.
“When I got there, I was waiting for them to ask me if he was a donor,” she said. “I didn’t realize that the hospital doesn’t have that information in that moment. They asked me what I wanted to do. I knew what his body had been through these last few years. I had to let him go. I was hurt thinking he wasn’t going to be a donor. Being a tissue donor didn’t cross my mind in that moment.”
Later that day, Jessica received a phone call from Gift of Life Michigan explaining that her father could be a tissue donor.
“I knew he would want to do that,” she said. “It is what he lived for. It was without question that this is what he had to do.”
Just months after her father’s passing, Jessica was diagnosed with stage 2B kidney failure. She hopes by sharing both her and her father’s stories that she can help people understand the impact of organ and tissue donation.
“I’ve seen first-hand the importance of it within the Black community,” Jessica said. “There is still a stigma that really needs to be dispelled. I saw for myself how my father was treated in those final hours. People believe that they’re not going to save your loved one because they want their organs, and I know that is not how it works. I watched as they did everything they could to save his life. It’s a story that needs to be shared.”
Recently, Jessica decided to become a volunteer for Gift of Life, just as her father had been.
“I definitely felt compelled to do it, as part of my dad’s legacy,” she shares. “Organ donation been so beneficial in my life. We were able to spend 11 more years with him because of his gift. I’ve also seen my cousins receive a kidney, and multiple close friends who have as well. It’s touched my life in so many ways.”
The best way to save lives is by joining the Donor Registry. To join the 4.6 million Michigan residents who have made their decision to become organ, eye and tissue donors known, visit golm.org/donate.
