Coroners and the Donation Process

This episode contains straightforward information about cause and manner of death. Some listeners who have previous experience with traumatic loss may find it uncomfortable. If you need additional information or resources, please contact us at info at thegiftedlife.org. Here on the Gifted Life, we are pleased to have Chuck Krito in the Gifted Life Podcast Studio.

Hi, sir. Hi, how are you? Thank you. We're going to be talking about the role of the corner plays in the donation process, and we're excited to learn more.

Yeah, Laurie, you know, most families don't really know that corners have a big role. They play a huge role in the donation process. A lot of donation, organ donation, tissue donation, or intertwined with a corner's investigation and a death investigation. So, of course, we have a very close relationship with corners, with all the 64 parish corners, offices here in the state of Louisiana and other OPOs do the same in their areas, which is why we have a corner subcommittee.

It's a very important thing for us to be able to reach out and have good communication with the corner's offices. So, our subcommittee heads that, and Chuck has been a great head chairman of our corner subcommittee for many, many years. So, he's been a huge friend of Lopez and welcome you for that and welcome you into our Gifted Life Podcast. Well, Joy, thank you very much for having me.

I'm very excited to be here to talk about the role of a corner in organ donation. It's sometimes an area that's really overlooked by many people, including lawyers and the general public. So, I'm very pleased to be here and talk about what corn is actually due, because corn, as you know, in all states, there's either a coroner or a medical examiner. So, in Louisiana, we have the elected coroner system, but just next door in Texas, they have the medical examiner system, and a medical examiner is simply appointed by the governor as a forensic examiner.

We do the same functions, but coronas and medical examiners are just, they arrive at their position from a different perspective, but do the same jobs. So, when we talk about Louisiana laws today, many of you listening may want to go back and check your own particular laws and know that coronas and medical examiners are basically the same and perform a lot of the same functions, although Louisiana coronas are what we call sui generis, which is a term used by UE Long, one of our famous ex-governors, to mean one of a kind. So, we do have several other duties that coronas and other states don't have. But for today's purposes, we want to talk about organ donation and why coronas are involved in that process.

So, for the listeners out there, you know, I know you've got, you're a man of many titles and many roles. So, can you tell them the audience out there exactly, you know, a couple of things actually. One, what your main roles are currently outside of LOPA, and then also what got you interested in becoming a close friend of LOPA? I began my legal career in 1976, and I began as an assistant district attorney in Jefferson Parish and was able to retire after 30 years of service there.

I was lucky enough to be sent to the coroner's office one day when we had a tremendous plane crash in Jefferson Parish, and I was assigned to help the coroner, who by chance happened to be General George Patton's personal physician in World War II, Dr. Charles Odom. So, that began a very long fascination with coronas and what coronas actually do. I've represented coronas since 1982 across the state of Louisiana, both in litigation and in the legislative process.

In addition to my assistant DA job, I was a coroner's attorney for many, many years and still represent many coronas across the state of Louisiana. I am also an associate professor of law at Tulane Law School. I teach trial advocacy, and I've been very fortunate to be appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to sit as a judge pro tem in both the district court, which would be a superior court, I believe, in other states, and in the parish court, which would be a misdemeanor court. So, I've had judicial experience and legal experience.

Dr. Trudin became the second longest coroner in Jefferson Parish history, and it was Dr. Trudin who said, why aren't you involved with LOPA? And I said, I don't know.

Why not? And so, I began to learn what LOPA did and what LOPA was responsible for, and it certainly tied right in with corona laws. So, I was very anxious to see if I could do anything to help, not only from a legal standpoint, but from a support standpoint. So, that's how I got here.

I was lucky enough to be appointed the chairman of the coroner's subcommittee, and it's really been a really labor of love because it's not only a legal position, meaning we deal with a lot of the laws and the legislature and how they affect coronas all over the state, but we also get to deal with how they affect organ donation across our state, and we're one of the best OPOs in the nation, and I'm proud to be part of it. So, can you tell the audience a little bit about the primary roles of the coroner? I know a lot of people understand, and I guess as it pertains to death and why we would be so intertwined with them. Well, let's start off by saying when I said the coronas are sui generis in Louisiana, I meant that they have three main functions.

One is death investigation, two is involuntary mental health commitment law, and three is sexual assault examination laws. So, today we're going to talk just about death investigation and how the coroner's role in that is also involved with organ donation. So, many of you realize that and see the main function of coronas across the country as death investigation, and there are so many aspects to death investigation. Of course, there are natural deaths which occur, as we know, as a natural disease process.

We also know that there are deaths from accident, homicide, and suicides, as well as other types of deaths, and the coroner is responsible for every dead body within his jurisdiction. In our state, we call it a parish-wide jurisdiction. In your state, you might call it a county-wide jurisdiction. So, the coroner's death investigation is done by trained death investigators who have specialized training in processing scenes and processing bodies, and to process what type of information is going to be needed, either for organ donation, for the family, or for later possible criminal prosecution.

So, all of those things become very relevant at any death scene, whether it is your 88-year-old aunt who dies of natural causes at home, or it's unfortunately your 24-year-old who drowns in a boating accident next weekend. We cannot emphasize how many different factors go into these decisions, which are quite frankly life-and-death decisions. And there are many choices at the end of life, and hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about some of those, because I think some of the tips that individuals might find interesting. So, we're out in the community and we work with the families, and sometimes we have these families who say it was a gunshot, or it was a homicide.

How does that impact donations? So, when it comes to the coroner's role, how does it impact donation? Well, in many instances, when a coroner is called to the scene of an accident, a homicide, or a suicide, the coroner's investigator has to not only process the scene for evidence concerning the cause and manner of death and the identity of the person who is involved, but we also have to be aware that every person can, in fact, be an organ donor. Simply by watching the driver's license, in some instances, we know immediately that that person is, in fact, an organ donor, and so we then are able to take that into consideration.

One of the things we do, which has been very exciting for us, is we have a computer program called MDI Log, which 25 out of the 64 coroners currently use in the state of Louisiana. And that program helps us to identify victims or individuals who are organ donors and helps us to initiate the organ donation process with LOPA, our Organ Procurement Association, and gives us a database to work from to assist the families and to assist those individuals who chose in their lifetimes to become organ donors. Now, in many cases, there may not be a designation of organ donor, and it becomes necessary for those who survived the individual to make those choices or to authorize organ donation, and those are what we call end-of-life decisions. But every case, and I know you started with the idea of a homicide, homicides are not always going to be cookie-cutter type situations, meaning that an organ donor, for example, let's take a gunshot wound to the head.

Sometimes common sense would tell us that a gunshot wound to the head would not affect any organ donation of a kidney, and kidneys are so badly needed, as we all know. But upon further examination by a forensic pathologist, we might discover that that person had already had a gunshot wound in the kidney area, which would make that organ a suspect organ for transplant. We might find that that person has a preexisting condition of hepatitis or other types of diseases, which may affect the viability of that organ for transplant, and we may find other factors, both physiological and neurological, which would indicate that the organ cannot be transplanted. All of those things, though common sense-wise, would not be thought of at first.

They would simply say a wound to the head has nothing to do with the kidney. Unfortunately, they do. And so we depend on the forensic pathologist and the death investigators to do one thing, and that is to get us as much information about every potential organ donor, whether they be a listed organ donor or one that the family wants to participate in the organ donation process, or that the family knows from past dealings with that individual that he or she always wanted to be an organ donor and may not have renewed their driver's license at the time of death or prior to death. So we want to be sure that in every instance we gather as much information about the individual, about their living circumstances and their family members next to kin, and the type of wounds our death process cause, means, and manner of death that they are subject to so that we can make the most informed decision on organ transplant and organ donation.

So and just to kind of expand upon that from our side at LOPA, we've got a group of forensics coordinators who are dedicated specifically to work with corners to make sure that what we, you know, what that they're one, that they're getting all the proper information, all the information that Chuck is talking about, that they're getting all that information. And two, if all the information that they're getting is not what all what they need, if there's any other pieces to the puzzle that we can maybe provide that will enhance that investigation, we certainly also look to offer that so that we can not only be, you know, certainly not be a hindrance to the investigation, but go beyond that and be a huge help. We try to be as much of a help as we can to that investigation. In other words, you know, we'll go ahead and do a CT, a CAT scan or radiological diagnostics, you know, if there's questionable areas of trauma or if there's anything else, we'll do a CAT scan of the head or CAT scan of a certain, you know, area, chest or abdomen, x-rays of the extremities of the arms and legs or even make sure that they get all the blood that they're supposed to get from a, you know, a toxicology standpoint to make sure that the, you know, that if there's any drugs on board or anything that could have enhanced or been contributed to the death or anything else, so we try to make sure we're constant communication, which is a huge part of the forensic coordinators job and also to work with Chuck and the coroner's subcommittee to make sure that we're not missing anything.

And look, this is something new that we can offer. You think this would be good for the corners and we try to work kind of hand in hand, you know, with in that realm. So one of the concepts that is very important, I think, for all of the organ donors and families in this situation is that the organ donation process has never affected any potential criminal case in any jurisdiction that I have ever researched or found across the United States. And I think it's important as a prosecutor for 30 years, I constantly looked for any cases where the organ transplant process might affect a judge or a jury's decision in a later prosecution.

And I'm very happy to report that I have been able to find none. And that is a very significant thing when we talk about organ transplant and organ donation. And the main donors and their families can rest assured that the process does not affect and has not affected any criminal prosecution whatsoever in the United States to my research and my knowledge. And I think that's a very important thing because organ donation has to be given with the confidence that we are in a process that is not only medically, tremendously transparent and medically very advanced in every sense of that word, but is also legally sufficient to guarantee that not only does a person who desperately needs the life of a new organ, that person survive, but a case if there is a case involved with that particular donor, that case will not be adversely affected in any way.

Yeah, I think that's very important. A lot of families I work with, they're very interested in the mechanism of death. They want to know more so that they can have answers and they can rest easy. So it's really important to know that organ donation won't get in the way of your answers.

And that's still true too in the final autopsy results involving cause and manner of death. Families want to be assured that this process, the determination of cause and manner of death is not adversely affected scientifically. And I believe that the, I guess the word today is data. Everybody uses the word data for today.

The data is very, very secure in that sense. It has no effect on it and families and donors can rest assured that their intentions will be carried out and those intentions will not affect any later proceedings in any respect. Another important distinction with regard to the role of the coroner in organ donation is that while we in the coroner's office make decisions concerning the cause and manner of death and the relationship of that to the person as a whole, there are transplant surgeons and many other medical professionals who also are deeply involved in the gradation, say, of the organs to be transplanted and the effect and what can be done. So it is a, every physician and their specialty has their place in the role of organ donation and all of them work together toward the same goal.

That is, if organ donation is viable, then it's to be done. If any other reason, for example, my earlier example of a gunshot wound to the head, well, that individual may have suffered an underlying heart attack before the gunshot wound or after the gunshot wound. And so we would want to know, would that cause any difference in the cause and manner of death? And no, it wouldn't.

The forensic pathologist would be able to examine the organs, but the transplant surgeons and the transplant teams and the LOPA individuals who work with that family and that donor, they would all still play a major role in determining the viability of that particular organ in the viability in the sense of what it was to be used for and what transplant goals were in mind. Love learning from you. And I want to ask you this question because I wasn't sure when I was out in the field. So I was doing a presentation before I started in the middle at the end.

I remember her face. She came up and she was really stressed and she said, I don't have a family. I don't have any kids. There's no one around.

So what if something happens to me? Who decides? Who makes those decisions? What will happen to me?

And so can you talk about that? Certainly. I think that the end of life decisions are something that maybe we all don't want to really think about in any real sense. But we must consider the fact that there may be a time when we will not be able to communicate what our intentions are.

And there are ways that the law provides for us to do those very things. For example, one of my tips that I want to put out there is for the attorneys listening, if you draft wills for clients, please include burial instructions. Very often those are overlooked by attorneys drafting wills because wills can have very complicated terms in them concerning the disposition of property. But it is amazing at the end of life how many times there can be a dispute over the remains of the decedent.

And so one burial instruction in a will. And remember there are two types of wills in Louisiana. In your state there may be other ones. But in Louisiana there are two types of wills.

A notarial will, which is signed before a notary and two witnesses, or what's called in Louisiana an oleographic will, which is simply a document which is written, dated, and signed by the testator or by the person who wants to make this his or her declaration. Therefore every person, every person can write their own will written, dated, and signed. May not have legal terms in it. May not have the sophistication of a special needs trust in it.

But it will contain your intentions. And if it's found in a place where somebody knows it is to be found in the event of your passing or your incapacity, then it can in fact become very viable as to what your intentions are. So one of the tips is always put burial instructions in any will that you do. You also, in my practice, if you are an organ donor, you can certainly put that in a will.

There's no prohibition against you letting your relatives know that you're an organ donor and you wish to go through the organ donation process if at all possible. So many questions then come down to what's the difference between a will and a living will. Well, in many instances, I want to make sure that we understand that very few people go to the hospital with a living will. Okay, if you're rushed to the hospital, it's usually a dramatic event and it's usually not going to be time to figure out what possession you want to bring to the hospital, especially now during our pandemic.

So living wills are very, very specific documents that indicate to the nursing and hospital staff what your intentions are regarding the use of extraordinary life-saving measures and the withholding of artificial nutrition and hydration. And whether or not you wish to have that done or not and what effect that living will has on your intentions. So many people have living wills and they never get used in the hospital because by the time anybody finds out that you've got one, the doctors and nurses are well into the process of saving your life. So we don't want to stop them from doing that.

So living wills can be done at an attorney's office or in the hospital if facts and situations warrant that. But the question becomes what about a power of attorney? There are two types of power of attorneys. One is a general power of attorney and normally in most states that's recognized to be a document where you appoint someone else to act for you in all things but the buying and selling of real estate if you are unable to perform any particular act like banking or signing a check or things of that nature.

The important part is that most general powers of attorney, especially the ones in Louisiana, are called durable power of attorney, which means that should you lose mental capacity for any reason, the power of attorney is still valid and still kicks in. One of the other topics regarding powers of attorney and a general nature is that power of attorney dies with the individual. For the most part in most states, most general laws hold that powers of attorney, a general power of attorney dies with the person when that person's dead, the power of attorney is dead and the agent can no longer act for that person. However, the law does recognize special types of powers of attorney.

I mentioned one, the power to buy and sell real estate. That's how people across the country can buy and sell real estate and not have to travel miles and miles or state to state to do that. The one we want to talk about today in regard to our lope situation is the healthcare power of attorney. The healthcare power of attorney is a power of attorney, which like the general power of attorney can be a durable power of attorney, meaning should you lose your mental capacity, the agent still can act for you, regardless.

In a healthcare power of attorney, it is certainly possible to list your status as an organ donor and that power of attorney would survive your death in that limited situation so that your agent could continue the donation process on your behalf. What happens though, when as your person said, I have nobody, I have no person to act for me and I have no one who I might depend on at the time of my death to take steps to organ donations or to do any other function. The law is very specific and our Louisiana law is cited as Louisiana statutes annotated section 17, title 17 rather, section 2354.3. And I make that reference for the attorneys and or judges who might need a legal reference to where our anatomical gift act and our donation laws are.

And that statute says that an anatomical gift for purposes of transplantation, therapy, research or education, let's remember that not every transplant, not every donation, not every organ donation is used in transplant. We have great, great needs in our country for research, for therapies and education and I guess this pandemic has taught us more and more about how important research and therapies are. So rest assured that no organ is wasted in that respect. Some people ask me, well, if my organ is not, if I'm shot in the kidney and it's no good anyway, what difference did it make if I was an organ donor?

It makes a lot of difference because while that organ might not be suitable for transplant, it is suitable for research, it is suitable for education and that's how we train our upcoming medical professionals in this field, in all fields, not just in transplantation. So anyway, there's a priority list. For example, the law in Louisiana and maybe your law also likes to do priorities. So it lists one, two, three and as long as somebody's in section one, that's who gets to make the decision.

If nobody's in section one, then we go to section two, nobody's there, then we go to section three and so on and so on. The same is true as I told you about the right to dispose of remains. There is a priority, but the first priority in that area is a written notarized burial instruction. So that's why my tip, put your burial instruction in your statutory will or your notarial will is a really good tip to do because that way nobody can fight over you, especially in a multiple family situation.

One person wants burial, one person wants cremation, one person wants you to be spread over. Like punch a train and one person wants you spread over. I do. So there's all kind of priorities.

But in this situation, the authority to make an anatomical gift when no one else is available falls first of all to the agent and that's the healthcare power of attorney agent. That agent can in fact continue to make that donation. Secondly would be a surviving spouse. Third would be the adult children of the seeden.

Fourth would be the parents of the decedent. Fifth would be the adult siblings of the decedent. Sixth would be the adult grandchildren of the decedent. Second would be the grand parents of the decedent.

Eighth and adult who exhibited special care and concern for the decedent. Now remember in that situation, we're talking seven categories where nobody is there and the person who ends up taking care of you. Let's say you die at home and the person next door took care of you all those years and knew you and was your constant companion. That person now has the authority to complete the organ donation process for you if you in fact were an organ donor or you ever expressed an interest in being an organ donor or you never expressed a revocation or I don't want to be an organ donor.

So the person acting as a guardian is nice and that tends to reflect those who are appointed as a curator in Louisiana. Louisiana law curator is appointed by a court to manage the affairs of another individual. So when they say the person acting as a guardian in your state it's probably called guardian at leadem but in Louisiana we call them curators. Number 10 is any other person having the authority to dispose of the body of the seeden.

So now we go back to that same statute I just talked about the right to dispose of remained statute. That's how important that is and that's why I say put that in your notarized will. So when there's more than one member in any given class it's a majority so if there are three brothers you got to have the two out of three rule if there are four sisters then three out of four sisters prevail. And so we tend to we want to make sure that everyone knows that you too can be a part of the organ donation process whether you have surviving family whether you have anyone close to you that would assist in that regard but even when you don't Louisiana law takes care of that process for you and it gives an orderly process of who has the right to complete this organ donation process for you if that is your intention.

So now Chuck what happens if there is no one on that list for a person. We've had potential organ donors where they are either unknown and then we identify them and we can't find family friends. There's no guardian who's decision is it then. That is the best news of the day I think.

Louisiana law our lawmakers decided that in that situation that Louisiana corners would then become the person to have the authority to complete the organ donation process. So it is very very I happily report to you that while coronas statewide and nationwide are normally seen in the death process coronas can give life and that is a very rewarding function that coronas play under Louisiana law we too participate in the giving of life process that Lopa works with every day and I cannot tell you while it's not often used it is most rewarding and coronas across the state have welcomed that responsibility which it is a very big responsibility. I don't make I don't make light of that in any respect. However we like to say that now corn is do give life and we relish that role and we abide by that law statewide.

Well I have learned a lot today I love the way your brain works I followed everything so if we want to follow up on what you were talking about or any final thoughts from corners or four corners in their role what would you have to say there mr. Chuck. I would suggest that the Lopa website that we maintain here at Lopa has various articles regarding the role of the corner not only in organ transplant process but in various functions throughout Louisiana you certainly can follow up there and I think it's important to see the role of the corner as not only in the death investigation but in the life process and so we will continue to maintain our presence not only in your community but in the legislature where we advocate for laws which affect all of us and maintain the dignity of life as well. Beautiful Chuck Credo thanks for joining us in the get to life podcast studio.

On the gift of life we like to take a moment for mental health. Yes Sarah what do you have for us today? We are going to be talking about how uncomfortable uncertainty is and how to cope with it. I've been dealing with that a lot.

You know I think we all have we're living in such an uncertain time we've got COVID-19 of course we don't really fully understand that we don't understand when a vaccine is coming. We're also in an election year so there's a lot uncertain for the next couple of years for us so I thought it was pretty relevant to talk about this today and just school do you send a back do you not do you go to the grocery store do you wear the mask what we doing. So lots of questions so please teach us. Well I think you know it's good to plan and it's good to have a plan for your life but the reality of our situation is that uncertainty is a certainty in our life.

Be flexible. Yeah so that's the first part of this is to know that there's nothing in our world that's going to be 100 percent certain and to recognize that and to kind of sit with that feel that uncomfortability and just know that it's okay that that's just a normal part of life that's kind of the first part I wanted to talk about. And I've learned that our life is basically a series of improvisations. Yeah you know basically one after the other after the other you just have to deal with what comes.

Yeah yeah it's a series of choices like you said something happens you make a decision you make a choice and you move from there. I try to learn get some facts make an educated decision and stick with it and then breathe. You talked about that on a previous blog. Learning to breathe.

It's just a small deep breath and you know trust yourself and unfortunately for some people though they can't it's a constant thing in their minds to think about what's next what next how do I plan. So how do you kind of get out of that funk when you're in it because some days you might be okay and other days it might be too much to handle the uncertainty of why. And I'll add to that a famous philosopher Mike Tyson once said everybody has a plan till they get popped in the mouth. So a lot of times you have a really good plan in place and you have to be ready like I said to do some improv and readjust based on what comes your way.

That's right so that's our first tip is don't resist it don't resist the discomfort of uncertainty because you're going to feel it it's going to be something that you have to deal with in life so just lean into it in a way because ultimately resisting something will prolong the pain of it will prolong the discomfort. Next we have to invest in ourselves right we have to make those healthy decisions for yourself you have to do self care you have to know that those healthy coping mechanisms that we talk about all the time like a good night's sleep. Well golf. My most true.

Eat coffee chocolate chocolate. Okay. That's a chug. Chocolate is definitely self care.

I don't hear anybody said chocolate I've read in the science magazine. Yes. Everything in moderation but yes so invest in yourself and your care and your mental health and you'll be able to cope with the uncertainty a little bit better. Next don't believe in the worst case scenario every time don't believe those negative thoughts that come in it's impossible to not have them but recognize it feel it and move on and cope and find it.

Anything on the media and social media. There's a lot of negativity on social media a lot of negativity in the media. It's because everybody's been cooped up I think like that's their only outlet and yes it's a lot to take in and sometimes you turn off those. That's right and 99% of the time the worst case scenario isn't the true reality so know that that's okay and know that that's not necessarily what the truth is for you.

That's right so focus on that know that it's not going to be the worst case scenario and next just pay attention to yourself do a check in every now and then recognize how you're feeling see if you're a little overwhelmed if it's something that you don't know to send your kids back to school something that you're definitely dealing with that's real feel it pay attention to yourself and your needs and then recognize that and go from there. We've been walking through it thinking you went through the different scenarios what's the greatest what's the worst and then we stuck with the middle so yeah yeah and you know it's okay to feel stressed about the uncertainty it's okay just recognize it know that you're feeling that stress sit with it don't try to resist come up with a good plan and get those coping mechanisms that we know so well yeah I have a good circle of friends that it's kind of like having a bad day let's talk about it five minutes in your time so that helps you just yeah communicating understanding that a lot of us are going through the exact same that's right it's a validation of feeling so you're not the only one who's feeling that way you're not the only one who stressed out so reach out to your friends don't feel like you're a burden for talking about it yeah I'll be calling you guys later great topic maybe you have a topic you'd like us to cover send it to us at info at the gifted life dot work we have reached the question the answer segment of the gift life podcast and our answers going to be from Chuck himself so we're very excited okay so Chuck what happens if I die at home how will my wishes to be a donor be known well there are two ways mainly that we will be known first of all the corner investigator on the scene will normally look for any form of identification as you know in Louisiana on your driver's license or identification card the status of donor is clearly marked and can be displayed prominently when that is found on any death scene the corn is investigated makes that a part of MDI log which is the program I talked about before which corn is used MDI log will then contact LOPA as part of the natural process of notification and LOPA will then be able to search the office of motor vehicle database under state law which they required to do and which they do and that will yield the donation status of any individual so now that's one way of doing it and that's not that's done a lot but the second way of doing it is to let your family or friends know that you're a donor because when your family or friends are notified then they can in fact say immediately my friend is a donor did you know that if in fact that fact hasn't been known up to that point then the corn is investigator will in fact make a note of that and then we'll start that process again so the notification of donor status in any given death scene is usually done by driver's license or ID card but it can be done by individuals on the scene individual family members or any friends who happen to know of that donor status yes tell your friends tell your family educate yourself we love that maybe you have a question for us here at the gifted life you can give us a call 504-648-3477 in every episode of the get-to-life podcast we honor a hero today's hero Alexis Molier her story comes to us from her family Alexis was always full of life she was loved by everyone that knew her she had an infectious smile that would light up anyone's day her passion for dance was beyond measure she loved chasing sunsets to get the perfect pictures she had a large circle of friends that will never forget her and the impact she made on their lives she was always on the go and now I know why she had lots to do and plenty lives to touch in a short 14 years of life on earth we miss her every day but we have some comfort in knowing that some one is seeing the world and sunsets through her eyes also through organ donation she saved three lives she is my hero September 2nd I received a call that no parent ever wants two of my girls had been in a terrible car accident on September 4th my daughter Alexis succumbed to her injuries as I sat and tried to wrap my head around the news that I just received I was approached by Lopa about organ donation there was no hesitation when I said yes during the interview with Lopa something made me remember that my brother stepson was on the kidney transplant list I mentioned this and of course he was put on the top of the list if they were a match the next morning my mom received a text message that he was to report to the hospital for a possible match and be ready for surgery I couldn't believe it my baby girl was given life to someone so close to our family it was later confirmed that he did indeed receive her kidney it was a whirlwind of emotions for all of us including the recipient to know that we had to lose a family member to save another he has since been married and he is doing awesome her heart now beats in another little girls chest and her other kidney and pancreas has saved a little boys life I hope to meet both of them one day I know most of you will be receiving or already received your driver's license I pray that you have made the right decision to also be an organ donor your parents will thank you if they are ever faced with a tragedy of losing a child it does make the pain a little more bearable knowing that my baby girl lives on and now we pause and say thank you to Alexis for the gift of life and that'll do it for episode 144 of the gift of life yeah we thank our in studio guest mr. Cricrio he's been instrumental over the years in helping us to preserve the opportunity of donation while at the same time making sure that all of the questions are answered with that donation and of course he's great I mean he's such a good person such a he's so good with the sub the corner subcommittee and as you can see great with the podcast just a great advocate so we have him on the gift of life and we hope that you help us spread the word you can find the podcast at the gift of life dot org and if you were inspired to register as an organ I and tissue donor you can do that anytime register me dot org you can listen to any of our episodes on our website or anywhere you listen to your podcasts whether it's Spotify Google iHeartRadio or Apple if you do listen on Apple please subscribe and leave us a five star rating so that others can find our podcast on social media we're out there Facebook they get to like podcast Twitter and Instagram at giftedlifepod thanks for listening please share the podcast our goal is to educate to learn to inspire we ask you to go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen until next time this is a production of Loba or the Louisiana organ procurement agency they get to life is hosted by Lori Steele Joey BuDrow and Sarah Blakemore our executive producer is Kirsten Heis producer is Shalom Caraway intern is Rebecca Rannam and we are recorded engineered and mixed in our Covington Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.