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Christmas Miracles
One day as I was getting my license renewed a man sat
down beside me and asked, “Are you an organ donor?”
“Yes,” I responded.
He looked at me with a curious face for a moment and
finally asked, “Why are you a donor? Why should I become a
donor?”
In response to his question I told him the story of my
older brother David.
A few years ago David was on his way home from college
for Christmas break. As he was driving home it began to snow
ferociously, the roads were covered in snow masking the black
ice hiding beneath it. The car slipped on the black ice, slid off of
the road, and ran head first into a tree. He was thrown through
the window shield, and as a result sustained multiple injuries
including a broken rib, arm, and collarbone. He was medevac’d
to the hospital and rushed into emergency surgery. My family
and I waited for hours in the waiting room as the doctors
operated in efforts to save him. The doctors were able to
stabilize the bleeding in much of his body, but because he was
thrown through the windshield his brain began to swell,
hemorrhage, and eventually he was pronounced brain dead.
When we were allowed into the ICU we saw David for the
first time. There were tubes and wires attached to him that
snaked from his body to the ventilator and other robotic
machines in the room. The once vibrant, strong brother I knew
was lifeless and helpless. The doctor came in and asked us if
we would like to honor David’s final wish of wanting to donate
his organs. None of us had any clue this was something he
wanted, we were shocked and slightly confused. My mother
was completely against the idea, she said she didn’t want him
to be taken apart. She was afraid of not having an open casket
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at his funeral. She felt as if his organs were taken away she
would be missing pieces of him. We left the hospital in tears
trying to make sense of this tragedy and what all organ
donations entailed.
I couldn’t sleep that night so I decided to do some
research to keep my mind occupied. Over 115,000 people are
currently waiting for a transplant and every 10 minutes
another patient is added to the list. 18 people die everyday
waiting for an organ transplant. I learned that you could have
an open casket funeral after donation. The amount of positive
information about organ donation astounded me.
I went to my mom with all of these facts, corrected myths,
and more about organ donation to try to convince her that
donation was the right thing to do. After hearing the facts she
slowly began to see where I was coming from. But what really
made her realize that we should agree to the donation was
realizing that donation didn’t take pieces of David away, it gave
him a chance to live again through others. It gave my mother
great comfort to know that because of my brother another
family wouldn’t have to go through the same pain of losing a
child, sibling, or parent. David could give someone their life
back and keep a family together. In that fact she found solace
and became at peace with David’s organs being donated.
The next morning my family and I gathered at the
hospital to say our last goodbyes. Organ procurement teams
were called in, the organs were taken to the bodies that would
become their new homes, and transplant surgeries
commenced. A firefighter in Chicago received David’s lungs and
was able to go back to his job, saving lives and protecting
others. A twelve-year-old girl in St. Louis received his heart
and was able to sign up for spring soccer the following year. A
father in Detroit who received his kidneys no longer has to go
through dialysis treatments; he will be able to walk his
daughter down the isle at her wedding. His pancreas was given
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to a grandfather who is now able to see his grandchildren
graduate from college.
On Christmas morning we woke up to the best presents
possible. These presents weren’t wrapped or under the tree,
they were more special than that. There was a knock at the
front door and standing there was David’s surgeon. In his
hands he held a stack of letters from the recipients of David’s
organs. There were pictures and letters from almost all of the
recipients. But one person stood out, her letter touched the
hearts of our entire family. It was from the little girl that
received David’s heart, and it read:
Dear Harris Family,
Thank you so much for my new heart. Because of you I get
to play soccer next spring. This was the best Christmas gift I
could have ever asked for. It is truly a Christmas miracle and I
will always be thankful. I am sorry for your loss and I promise to
keep David’s heart safe. He will always live on inside of me.
Merry Christmas,
Sara
The gesture from all of the patients relieved any sliver of
doubt about whether or not donation was the right choice.
That afternoon my entire family signed up to be organ donors.
David inspired us to save lives as he did. He taught us that in
the face of death we could still give life.
The DMV bell sounded and the mans number was called.
He simply said, “Thank you for telling me your story,” and
walked up to the counter that called his number.
As I was leaving the DMV the man caught up to me.
“Look,” he said as he held up his new drivers license. I then
noticed the bright red heart in the corner of his license. He
looked at me and said, “ I became an organ donor today
because I want to save a life too.”
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Works Cited
• "Organ Donation | donatelife.net." Donate Life America. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.
<http://donatelife.net/understanding-donation/organdonation/>.
• "The Gift of a Lifetime: Understanding Death Before
Donation." Organ Donation, Tissue Donation, Organ
Transplants - The Gift of a Lifetime. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar.
2013.
<http://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/deat
h/>.
•
"organdonor.gov | Organ Donor FAQs." organdonor.gov |
Welcome to organdonor.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2013.
<http://www.organdonor.gov/faqs.html>.
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