AEDC engineer is blessed with a life-saving opportunity
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity and responsibility to give something back by becoming more. - Tony Robbins, American self-help author and motivational speaker
When Andy Escue, a Dynetics engineer with Aerospace Testing Alliance's (ATA) technology group at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), learned that Kim Meadors, his wife's second cousin and Andy's close childhood friend, was facing a medical crisis, it took them both by surprise.
Kim, who is the same age as Andy, was in urgent need of a kidney transplant.
"It was in late February [when] my wife Sheryl and I saw a post on Facebook from a mutual friend of ours asking or urging folks to go and be tested for his cousin," Andy said. "I believe God was at the center of all of this."
Sheryl credited her husband as doing "an incredible thing by donating life."
She said, "Andy's response to some has been that we look for and ask God to help us recognize opportunities to help others and do the right thing. We happened upon an opportunity.
"Knowing that he could possibly give Kim a better quality of life and time with her son and family and choosing not to help was not an option. Even though Kim is my cousin, our families haven't gotten together in years. Now, we are connected in a new way, and we are all planning on being a bigger part of each others' lives."
The experience served as a lesson to reinforce one of Andy's long held core beliefs.
"It's just [about] keeping your eyes open for opportunities to help other people," he said.
Sheryl and Andy discussed being tested to determine if either of them would be a potential kidney donor for Kim. It was a much longer and more complex process than they realized.
"Andy was very discrete in the way he first told me what he and his wife were facing with her cousin," said Lynn Sebourn, AEDC's site manager for Dynetics and Escue's supervisor.
Sebourn said many of his senior managers and Escue's coworkers have been impressed, but not surprised by what Andy and his wife did for a family member.
"Whether it's his professionalism as an engineer, his commitment to his church's outreach programs or his love of playing bluegrass music with his coworkers on a lunch break or after work, is something I learned after the fact, so to speak," Sebourn said. "Andy's a very quiet young man, who doesn't talk about work, he just gets things done.
"I'm sure there are lots of great engineers on base, but as far as the ones I know, he's top notch. He came out of Tennessee Tech with his masters - he's been really effective since the day when we hired him."
Sebourn, who has been at AEDC for 20 years, said he advised Andy and Sheryl to approach the screening process with full knowledge of the risks to both of them.
"I really already knew what the outcome would be if either of them proved to be a match for Kim," Sebourn said. "My initial advice to him was to make sure his wife's on board with this process. I said 'make sure because this is a pretty big step to take when you're young and you've got a kid yourself.' He and his wife were already talking very carefully about it -and I never heard anything that sounded like there was any doubt on her part either, which really impressed me."
Sheryl said God had provided Andy and her with an opportunity that might never come again.
"Kim is a mother and is my and Andy's age," she said. "I don't know how long a person can live on dialysis - she had been on dialysis for a little more than a year before the transplant.
"But it was just tragic to think that if a donor was not found a young woman may die leaving her son without a mother. I think the biggest impact resulting from this event is Andy's example to others. We work with the youth group at our church; Andy is the head coach for the Coffee County (Central) High School men's soccer team, as well as being involved in a couple other community organizations. I think a lot of people have been inspired by this selfless act."
Regarding Kim, Andy said, "She is still recovering at home and the kidney seems to be working well."