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Friends step up to help veteran Healthcare ‘family’ combs the country to find organ match
Roswell restaurant revives Hero Meals to reach overlooked frontline workers By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com
By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com MILTON, Ga. — Three years after Milton resident Jeanine Ramirez was diagnosed with kidney failure, her kidney function had decreased by over 75%. Doctors said she would need to be placed on a waiting list that could take up to 10 years for her to receive an organ transplant. “I’m a single mom,” Ramirez said. “I was terrified at that point.” Ramirez, 46, had served eight years in the U.S. Army and completed two tours in Iraq before she retired in 1997 and moved to Georgia. In early 2021, the doctors gave her one to six months to live, so she began to make arrangements for her 17-year-old daughter with the help of one of her colleagues at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Her colleague, 52-year-old Jane Bridges, of Florida, could not donate a kidney because of her own medical reasons. Instead, she launched a personal outreach campaign to more than 200 of their fellow employees in hopes of finding a donor. “I didn’t want to lose a friend,”
Bridges said. “I knew there was something more that I could do even if it was just reaching out to other people. Jeanine has become a very good friend
over the years, so that was my big motivation right there.”
ROSWELL, Ga. — Big Oak Tavern chefowner Nate Armstrong has relaunched his Hero Meals initiative to support frontline workers who have been overlooked the past two years. The campaign focuses on those at COVID-19 vaccination sites, small doctor’s offices, call centers and nonprofits. And while Armstrong continues to support the community, this time he has his team at Big Oak Tavern and a state senator to back him up in an effort to deliver 100,000 free meals all over Georgia. “My main goal is to start a chain reaction,” Armstrong said. “I would love for it to go to South Carolina, to North Carolina and then for it to start with other restaurants. When you think about how short-staffed everyone is, a little show of appreciation and thank you goes a long way.” Armstrong began the initiative in 2020. At the time, Big Oak Tavern had only been open for a month when it was forced to shut down. Armstrong said
See KIDNEY, Page 19
See BIG OAK, Page 6
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PHOTOS CANCER TREATMENT CENTERS OF AMERICA/PPROVIDED
Jimmie Deibert holds hands with Jeannine Ramirez following her surgery last year. Deibert traveled from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Atlanta to donate one of his kidneys to Ramirez, who suffered from kidney failure.
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