NC man who received double lung transplant now donating organs to others

Joseph Moss is on life support at Duke University Hospital until Thursday, when he will donate his two kidneys and his liver.

“I know he wants to be an organ donor – he told us that – and I’m glad we’re going this route,” his daughter, Courtney Moss, said Wednesday.

Joseph Moss was diagnosed with Lyme disease in July and then contracted COVID-19 and double pneumonia two months later. Because his lungs were so damaged, he needed a double lung transplant, which he received in October. But then he suffered an embolism that left him with irreversible brain damage.

“I’ve made it for seven years, and I’m still doing good. To think he only lasted a month, it’s hard,” his daughter said.

“He would want them to go and live their life to the fullest, and that’s what we want,” said her stepmother, Kimberly Moss.

Joseph Moss wasn’t afraid of dying, his wife said, noting that he always believed his heaven would be something like West Virginia.

“That was his serenity. That was his heaven on earth, and that’s what he pictured his heaven would be. He would spend every moment there,” Kimberly Moss said.

Although Joseph Moss won’t physically be with them this Christmas, his wife and daughter say they know he's with them in spirit, and they called his organ donation a Christmas miracle.

“I thought it would be horrible because of this happening around the holidays, but I refocus my thinking, and it’s just a gift, a miracle, that three people will live because of him,” Kimberly Moss said.

In addition to encouraging organ donation, the Moss family also wanted to remind people of the importance of donating blood. Without blood transfusions, they said, Joseph Moss would never have never made it as far as he did.