Story Body By LISA WARREN 

 

Staff Writer 

 

Each morning, a mother in Pennsylvania fastens a tiny gold cross necklace engraved with the name "Richie" around her neck. 

 

The name is not one of her three children, but rather that of a young Greene County man who died in 1999 — but saved her life through organ donation. 

 

"Richie is my guardian angel," the woman, named Karen, told the young man's parents, Richard and Blanche Southerland. 

 

The cross around her neck, she says, is her daily reminder of Richie's gift of life to her — and her family. 

 

On Thursday morning, Richard Southerland told the story of the Pennsylvania woman who received his son's liver and described the day that he and his wife lost Richie from an automobile accident as "the lowest point in our lives." 

 

Out of that horrible tragedy, however, came many "positives," Southerland said during Laughlin Memorial Hospital's Passport 55 community lecture at Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center. 

 

One of those "positives" is knowing that Karen and the others who received Richie's donated organs are alive today because of their son's decision to donate life. 

 

Prior to her liver transplant, Karen was afraid she would not live to see her three children graduate from high school, Southerland said. 

 

"She had been on a waiting list (for a liver) for almost three years, and she didn't think she would last that long," he said. 

 

Thanks to her donated liver, Karen was able to watch as each of her children accepted their high school diplomas. She was also present to see her oldest complete college. 

 

Southerland said he had never thought about organ and tissue donation until Richie suffered fatal injuries in an automobile wreck nearly seven years ago. 

 

"On Dec. 26, 1999, the worst days of our lives started," Southerland said. 

 

"We got that knock on the door that all parents dread," he said. 

 

It was from the police officers who had come to tell them that their son had been in an automobile accident and had been airlifted to Johnson City Medical Center. 

 

"You're just not prepared for it," Southerland said of such news. 

 

When he and his wife arrived at the hospital and entered the intensive-care unit where Richie lay, they saw their son attached to a labyrinth of tubes and medical equipment. 

 

"When you walk in there and see your son hooked up to the life support ... it's terribly hard to take," Southerland said. 

 

Richie's brain, his doctors said, had suffered a tremendous injury, and they offered no hope of survival. 

 

"After two days, he lost the battle," Southerland said quietly. 

 

After extensive testing, Richie had been declared "brain dead," an irreversible condition in which the brain ceases all function. 

 

While mechanical ventilation (life support) and medications may keep a "brain dead" patient's heart beating and blood flowing to his or her organs, the person is "clinically and legally dead," explains Donate Life America, a national, not-for-profit alliance of organ and tissue donation advocates and organizations, on its Web site www.shareyourlife.org. 

 

"In the U.S., less than one percent – about 15,000-20,000 – of all deaths are brain deaths," the Web site reports. "These are usually patients who suffer an injury to the brain resulting from a trauma, stroke, or lack of oxygen and are rushed to the hospital, where doctors aggressively work to save their lives but cannot." 

 

Unfortunately, there are more individuals waiting on life-saving organs than there are donors. 

 

According to the most recent figures provided by Mountain Region Donor Services (MRDS), the Johnson City-based organ procurement agency, there are more than 90,000 individuals waiting for a life-saving organ in the United States. Of that number, about 1,800 are Tennesseans. 

 

In 2004, there were about 27,000 organ transplants performed in the U.S., MRDS says. 

 

One of the most important aspects of making the decision to become an organ and tissue donor is letting your family know of your wishes, Southerland said. 

 

The time of a loved one's death is the lowest moment of a person's life. Unfortunately, it is at that same time when organ procurement representatives must pose the question of organ donation to families. 

 

 Share Your Decision 

 

Too often, family members are faced with making a decision that they have never discussed with their loved one — simply because they had never talked about the issue of organ and tissue donation. 

 

Fortunately, a couple of months before Richie's death, he and his mother had been watching a television show about organ donation and it was then that he had expressed his wishes about becoming a donor when he died. 

 

Southerland said his wife told Richie at the time that she felt organ donation was a good thing, but she felt a little scared to sign her driver's license. 

 

"Richie's reply was, 'Mom, Why not? They're not going to do you any good after you're done. They would help somebody else,'" Southerland said. 

 

By telling his mother of his wishes, Southerland said, the decision to donate Richie's organs was made much easier at the time of his death. 

 

"This is something that I encourage everyone to discuss with their loved ones," Southerland said. "Hopefully, no one will ever have an injury like Richie did. But when it comes time to make that decision, it makes it so much easier if you have already discussed that issue with your loved ones and know their wishes." 

 

Thanks to Richie's decision, two individuals — a 15-year-old Nashville girl and a 39-year-old gospel music band member — each received a life-saving kidney. Two elderly, visually impaired persons received a cornea. 

 

And a mother in Pennsylvania received a liver — and was touched by her guardian angel. 

 

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 EDITOR'S NOTE: For more informaton on organ and tissue donation, contact Tennessee Donor Services toll-free at 1-888-234-4440 or go online at www.donatelifetn.org.