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Murdered woman’s kidney saves man’s life

By Angie Santello 5 min read

Although they live miles apart and in separate Pennsylvania counties, the lives of Butch Evans and Vanessa Byrd are forever connected in several ways. Evans, 62, of Beaver Falls, Beaver County, and Byrd of Masontown both had daughters who died tragically – the death of one prompting Evans and Byrd to believe strongly in the lifesaving cause of organ donation.

Evans is alive today because of a transplanted kidney, which he received from Byrd’s daughter, Joslyn Mickens, the victim of a Masontown murder four years ago.

On Feb. 4, 2001, an ex-boyfriend shot and killed 21-year-old Mickens in the bedroom of a North Water Street home. Kenneth “Stick” Wells, who was 23 years old at the time of the slaying, is serving 121/2 to 25 years in prison for her death.

Just two days after the murder, Evans received the lifesaving transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), where Mickens, not long before, lay in a hospital bed on life support.

It was like God gave Evans a second chance. Before then, his life was on a downhill slide.

Multiple suicide attempts dot a haunted past full of disputes among family, loss of a daughter and admittance into a mental institution, he said.

He credits his survival of two suicide attempts as a sign from God, and he believes the “man above” leads his life and led it to the point of jubilation he experiences today.

Evans recalled that after he jumped from the New Brighton Bridge, the river waters carried him floating like a cork down the waterway. But it was the second suicide attempt that led to his needing a kidney transplant. He poisoned his kidney after consuming 50 Excedrin PM pills.

His daughter, who later died from a virus, found him at his home after the overdose.

“I survived, but my kidneys did not,” Evans said. He is living with one kidney instead of two.

Evans underwent dialysis at home while he waited three years for a kidney that matched. The treatments were upped to four hours per day and three days a week to meet his large build.

His need for a new kidney was not the only problem visible in his life. In the meantime, Evans suffered from what he described as “extreme mental problems.”

“When I tell you I had to look up to see hell, I’m very serious,” Evans said. “Now, I’m on cloud nine looking down.”

Despite the sad end to certain family ties, the company of strangers has become Evans’ comfort and his surroundings in nature have become his church.

From the waitress at Sweetie Pie’s to the credit union employee who knows him by name and his account number by heart, Evans has found that it is those ties that keep him glad to be alive.

“The nurses got me going, and the waitresses keep me going,” Evans said. “When I was down and out mentally, there were those who didn’t want anything to do with me. Those others… they were always there for me.”

He delights in humor, and calls himself “ornery” and “outspoken.” He grew up in Beaver Falls, and still has some of the friends he grew up with. His mother was raised on a farm in the early 1900s, and he’s carried on her hard work ethic throughout his life.

Now he’s on a crusade for justice. He said he loves his country and wouldn’t trade it to live in any other place in the world; however, at the same time, he sees injustice in multiple forms piercing through an entanglement of government powers and social services.

Bettering the lives of abused women is a goal he works toward as well as fighting for issues associated with mental illness and mental patients, including the inclusion of hands-on activities to keep them busy.

He’s also fighting for issues on a national level, including re-implementing prayer in school.

Perhaps above all, Evans simply helps people who others only pass by each and every day. He bought a loaf of bread for someone who needed it. He invited a homeless person to stay with him for a few days until he got on his feet.

“Today, I appreciate life more since what I’ve been through,” Evans said. “But, then again, I always did.”

He recently had a shirt printed that reads, “I am alive because someone cared enough to be an organ donor. Thank God.”

He pushed for a meeting between him and Byrd, who he wanted to thank in person rather than by way of letters.

In a sad but powerful get-together, Evans and Byrd met for the first time at the Pittsburgh branch of the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE).

He compared finding a matching kidney to finding “a needle in a haystack.” He now jokes that with a woman’s kidney, he now cries a lot and uses the women’s bathroom.

For more information on organ donation and awareness, call 877-DONOR-PA, log onto www.donatelife-pa.org, call the Pittsburgh branch of CORE at 800-366-6777 or visit www.core.org.

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