Submitted to KNCO

It seems everybody in town knew or knows of Jim Rogers and his
untimely death while cycling a little more than two years ago. What most do not know is that
Rogers enhanced a number of lives after he died, because of his decision to donate life.
Wife Carolyn Jones Rogers of Chicago Park shares, “Jim’s donation helped me to realize that he
did not die in vain.
“His corneas went to two different women, giving them the gift of sight and his tissue helped
others as well. His donation has had a great impact in helping us to heal from losing Jim.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Katherine Medeiros and Tom Reuscher were afraid they
would not see their son, Mike, grow up to do the things other children enjoy as normal rites of
passage, such as, graduate, get married or have children.
That’s because Mike was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at just one day old. By age 24, he was
tied to an oxygen machine, and reduced to staying at home, not able to pursue school or a career.
“It was very, very hard,” said Medeiros, president and CEO at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital
in Grass Valley. “For him, just getting off the couch to get a glass of water was difficult.”
But, then in January, 2009, Mike received a life-saving double lung transplant, and his capacity
to breathe “went from 20 percent to 100 percent, overnight,” according to Mike.
Now, Mike’s mother, Katherine reports more good news. She’s a grandmother! Mike and his
wife Lyndsay, who live in Riverbank, recently celebrated the birth of their firstborn son, Grayson
Niel Reuscher.
National Donate Life Month
Both the family of Rogers and the proud new grandparents will attend the Nevada City Council
session on Wednesday, April 25. Jim Rogers’ family, led by wife Carolyn, will accept the
Donate Life Month proclamation. The family will then present the proclamation to Medeiros
and Reuscher so the proclamation can hang at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, honoring the
significant outreach the Hospital does to facilitate and honor donation. April is Donate Life
Month across the country, and here in California.