Above her many accomplishments as a teacher and head volleyball coach, Jody Dosser was most proud of the son she and husband Rick adopted. Their life’s journey drastically changed course on March 22, 2007, when 24-year-old Jermiah was fatally struck by a pickup truck that ran a red light. Jermiah’s final gifts to others were his corneas and tissue. Six months later, a Donor Awareness Week organized by Jody and the Waldorf College women’s volleyball team led to a liver recovered from the deceased mother-in-law of a religion professor being directed to the husband of one of the college’s business instructors.

Jody's Story

Jody Betten Dosser, 59, acquired two degrees in physical education and spent 34 years teaching and coaching at the high school and college levels. Her volleyball teams won many conference titles and received numerous honors. For the seven years before her retirement in 2008, Jody served as head volleyball coach and chaired the physical education department at Waldorf College in Iowa.

Despite her many accomplishments, Jody was most proud of the son she and husband Rick adopted. “Rick and I had been married for 10 years, unable to have child, we had applied to several adoption agencies and on March 31, 1982 we received a phone call telling us that a baby boy was born and he was ours,” she said. “That day, God gave us a special gift, Jermiah, but also on that date of March 31, 1982, we became a family. We were given the most precious and important title: Mom and Dad.”

Jermiah had “a heart of gold” and was a talented athlete in many sports before becoming a computer programmer. For Jody and her husband Rick, “Jermiah was not only our son, he was our best friend.” Their life’s journey drastically changed course on March 22, 2007, when Jermiah was fatally struck by a pickup truck that ran a red light. He was just nine days shy of his 25th birthday.

In their sorrow, the Dossers honored Jermiah’s final wish to be an organ donor as they remembered a family conversation when he had expressed his wholehearted wish to donate. Through the Iowa Lions Club Eye Bank and the Iowa Donor Network, as a final gift to others he donated his corneas and tissue.

Six months later, Jody and the Waldorf College women’s volleyball team organized “Donor Awareness Week” to promote the state donor registry and support the local Lions Club project. The successful event was repeated in 2008. The College relationship would prove important five months later, when the mother-in-law of a religion professor suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and progressed toward brain death. Several months earlier, the husband of Waldorf’s business instructor had been placed on the waiting list for a liver. An incredible trifecta was in place: Waldorf’s vice president, who had supported donation, suggested the religion professor designate the business instructor’s husband as the recipient of the mother-in-law’s liver.

“Their prayers for divine intervention were answered with a resulting liver match,” said Jody. “If Jermiah had not died and if I had not learned and shared information about donation because of his final gifts, another inspiring journey toward a life-saving liver transplant from one family to another might never have happened.”

Jody and Rick continue to pursue their active advocacy for organ donation and donor designation through Iowa and Arizona, their winter home. In spring 2010, Jermiah’s Law, championed by Rick and Jody, went into effect in Iowa. The law affords stiffer penalties for drivers who run red lights and unintentionally hurt or kill an individual.