Grateful LIer gives thanks for second chances

In July 2005, Shari Kurzrok led a happy life. The 31-year-old, a native of Great Neck, was planning to marry the love of her life. She had recently spearheaded publicity for the nation’s largest-ever blood drive, the American Red Cross Save-A-Life Tour.

But Shari’s life would need to be saved, too. That month, the otherwise healthy public relations executive collapsed at home. An ambulance rushed her to a hospital. Her liver was failing. She would have to get a liver transplant or she could die within a week.

Shari was admitted into the intensive care unit to wait for a miracle.

Her colleagues at Ogilvy Public Relations quickly banded together to help her. They created a website, opened a hotline, and issued a news release. Family and friends joined the push to promote her plight, too.

Doctors kept her alive for the next three weeks. Plasma exchanges and dialysis treatments siphoned the toxins from her blood. Her brain started to swell, a symptom of the cerebral edema that typically kills patients with acute liver failure.

I knew Shari as a colleague. Her reputation as a dear soul and model citizen was well deserved. I played a cameo role in this PR blitz, pitching reporters and serving as a media spokesman. Extensive press coverage ensued.

In early August, a liver became available. A dozen specialists at NYU Medical Center replaced her diseased liver with the donor organ. The lead physician said she received the transplant "in the nick of time."

Shari resolved to turn her personal crisis into a public crusade. She’s still an advocate for the cause, volunteering for LiveOnNY, an organ procurement organization.

That October, Shari got married at the Woodbury Jewish Center. Newsday dubbed her "the miracle bride."

Soon Shari became pregnant and delivered a baby girl, Alexis. Her middle name, "Nadia," means "hope" in Russian, a choice made to honor the donor.

Shari is still at the same agency after 18 years, still going full-tilt. Alexis just entered the fifth grade. And last month, Shari and her husband, Robby, celebrated 16 years of marriage. "I’m grateful every day to everyone who helped me," she recently told me.

The Save-A-Life Tour dispatched convoys to 345 cities around the United States, ultimately attracting more than 38,000 new potential donors and collecting 3.2 million pints of blood.

What goes around comes around. Do good for others and good will come to you. Shari embodies the concept of virtuous cycles. Years ago, her efforts gave strangers in need a second chance. No wonder a stranger then gave her a second chance, too.

This guest essay reflects the views of Bob Brody, a consultant, essayist and author of the memoir "Playing Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age."