Out of Tragedy, Life

The past few years of Sue Gaetzman’s life have been wrapped in death.

Her sister, father and husband died within 10 months of one another in 1996, while she was slowly succumbing to complications of diabetes.

Gaetzman struggled with the disease, checking into the hospital periodically for dialysis and other treatment. A miracle would have saved her. Instead, she was rescued by a tragedy.

Gaetzman, an actress living in Van Nuys, is free of diabetes today because she was given the kidney and pancreas of 8-year-old Brent Adams, who was killed April 13, 1999, when he was struck by a car while crossing a street near Laurel Elementary School in Brea.

On Friday, Gaetzman, 45, will give her first performance of an autobiographical play called “Blood Sugar.” The one-woman show traces the path of emotions she followed from her family members’ deaths to the one that eventually saved her.

The play is her method of dealing with the tragedy in her life and talking about the hope Brent gave her. And on opening night, Gaetzman will meet Brent’s family for the first time.

As Gaetzman was rushed to surgery last April to receive Brent’s kidney and pancreas, a family and a community were mourning the loss of the popular and energetic boy.

Since the accident, Gaetzman and Brent’s mother, Toni Adams, have been in contact sporadically by e-mail, each wary of full contact because of the powerful emotions they suspected would emerge if they met.

This month, Laurel Elementary School dedicated a plaque and a rosebush in Brent’s honor. Gaetzman couldn’t attend, but Eileen T’Kaye, the producer of “Blood Sugar,” arrived and embraced Adams. As the two wiped tears from each other’s eyes, they talked about how events were connected. T’Kaye presented Adams with a donation the production company had given to Save the Redwoods in Brent’s honor.

“There’s no word for coincidence in the Bible,” Adams told the producer.

Adams, her husband, Edward, and sons Brandon, 16, Nick, 9, Christopher 6, and Matthew 3, will attend the show’s opening night and will meet Gaetzman at a party celebrating the premiere of the play.

That organs of Brent live on inside of her is not lost on Gaetzman.

“Everything is so profound,” she said. “All this tragedy occurs and then I get the transplant. And it wasn’t an ordinary accident. It was an 8-year-old.”

It also was the third call she received to get a transplant. There were two false alarms. The first time, the organs lost viability when they reached the hospital. The second set of organs tested positive for hepatitis.

With the support of the community and the passage of the anniversary of Brent’s death, grief has become easier for Toni Adams to deal with.

“Everything has come full circle now,” she said.