Why the University of Iowa Center for Advancement?

The founders of the Dragonfly Transplant Fund, Deb and Ed Brown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, love sharing the story of their experience with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics’ Transplant Center and the Iowa Donor Network. ​

In early 2016, Deb was patiently awaiting a liver transplant that she and her family thought may never come. Her liver disease was affecting her everyday life to the point where emergency room trips seemed normal. Her health deteriorated at a rapid pace. 

In November 2016, Deb and her family received a call that a liver had become available for Deb to receive. After an 11-hour procedure at the UIHC Transplant Center, Deb had a new liver and a new life to live....and give. 

“We have a life together now,” says Ed Brown. “That’s not a gift...that’s more than a gift.” 

Deb and her husband, Ed, have ignited passion in others and established the Dragonfly Transplant Fund via a generous gift through the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. This gift is a testament of their appreciation of their doctors, their liver donor, and their donor’s family. The mission of their gift is to enhance the need for organ and tissue donor awareness. They hope with the support of community donors that they will be able to create a lounge in the hospital for caregivers of transplant patients to be together and learn about resources that are available to them and their families as they go through the organ transplant and organ donation process. 

“Donation, I don’t think, is [ever] going to go away,” says Ed Brown. “Transplant is never going to go away. Let’s put something there that everybody can feel good about.” 

Together with the support of the medical professionals at the UIHC Transplant Center, Deb and Ed are dedicated to serving patients and their caregivers through the Dragonfly Transplant Fund. If you would like to contribute to the Dragonfly Transplant Fund’s vision, please visit http://givetoiowa.org/dragonfly.