NEWNAN, GA — Jonathan Pinkard, a 27-year-old Georgia man with high-functioning autism, had resigned himself to dying in a homeless shelter upon his discharge from the hospital last year. He needed a heart transplant, but was denied the life-saving procedure because he was alone, without a support system.
Then Lori Wood came along.
The story of how Pinkard’s name had been placed on and then removed from the transplant waiting list nearly stilled the 57-year-old nurse’s own heart. Transplant recipients need a support system — someone who will make sure they’re taking good care of themselves and taking their anti-rejection medications — and Pinkard had no one.
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“When you’re a nurse and you want to fix and help someone, that’s very frustrating when you know a patient needs something and, for whatever reason, they can’t have it or receive it,” Wood said in a video by Piedmont Newnan Hospital, where she works as an intensive care unit nurse.
Wood had been assigned to Pinkard’s care in December 2018. He had been in and out of the hospital several times since August, when he fell at work, and was often discharged to a homeless shelter. He lived with his grandmother until her death in 2012. His mother lives in a rehab facility.
Wood said his situation gnawed at her soul. So after knowing Pinkard for only two days, Wood took action her colleagues at Piedmont said far exceeds what is expected of caregivers — or anyone.
She offered to adopt Pinkard and become his legal guardian.
“I guess for me in this situation, there was no choice. … It was just something that had to happen. He had to come home with me.”
— Lori Wood
“I think at some point, God places people and situations in your life, and you have a choice to do something about it,” Wood said in the video that explained her selection for the hospital’s President’s Award.
“I guess for me in this situation, there was no choice,” she said. “I had a room, I was a nurse, you know, and I could take care of him. So it really wasn’t something I struggled with. It was just something that had to happen. He had to come home with me.”
Pinkard got his heart transplant in August and hopes to go back to work in December, NBC’s “Today” show reported in its health segment.
Piedmont Newnan CEO Mike Robertson said in the video “most caregivers have big hearts,” but Wood set a new standard.
“She knew what it meant for him to not have this heart,” Robertson said, “and she put herself aside to help take care of Jonathan.”
He added: “She has changed a life. She found a family member. Here was someone that needed hope, needed someone to believe in, someone to help care for him. … She’s given him a brand new life.”
Pamela Murphy, the senior director of interventional services at the hospital, said on the video she doesn’t “know of anyone who would actually adopt someone and have them come and live in their home and take care of them.”
“It’s just special,” she said.
“She uprooted everything to take care of him,” said Kerri Hamilton, a registered nurse at the hospital. “To me, it was above and beyond anything.”
Pinkard settled in easily in Wood’s home.
“Jonathan has his chair, and I have my chair,” she told the “Today” show. “We like game shows and high-five back and forth if we get an answer right. He is very loving.”
Wood, who Pinkard refers to as “Mama” or “Miss Lori,” is helping the man improve his credit rating and with skills that will allow him to live independently.
“Miss Lori has been awesome, and she’s very lovable to me — not only to me, but her sons as well,” Pinkard said on the video. “They really treat me like family. I’m really thankful.”
Watch the full video below.