On December 16, Janine Cassata will celebrate the one-year anniversary of her organ transplant. The 50-year-old realtor from Chili was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was just 2 years old. It wasn’t until after she suffered an e-coli infection as an adult and her kidneys began to fail that her doctor told her she would need a kidney transplant. He suggested a pancreas transplant as well. Just six months after being added to a waiting list, Cassata was woken up by an early morning phone call. It was the organ transplant coordinator at Strong Memorial Hospital.
