Abilene mother of organ donor saw tragedy turned into ongoing gift

America Farrell's direct experience in the world of organ donation helped her find hope in her daughter Anna Thomas' death from an aneurysm.

Thomas was 26.

"I already knew that her cause of death is something that would allow her to be an organ donor," said Farrell, who asked immediately if an organ procurement organization had been contacted.

She admits that response isn't typical.

Normally, a family that receives such "unfathomable news" takes time to adjust to the immediate shock and loss, much less having a conversation about donation. 

But Farrell's background is in critical care nursing, she said, and she worked for several years in Salt Lake City as a donor coordinator.

"I did everything from consent all the way through organ placement all the way through operating room, and all the way through taking organs and making sure that they were shipped properly," said Farrell, who now is a vice president with Hendrick Health.

It never crossed her mind, she admitted, she would be part of a donor family herself, until her son-in-law called her, "completely frantic, saying something's wrong with Anna."

"She had been taken to the emergency room at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City, and had what they found was a massive cerebral aneurysm that essentially killed her instantly," Farrell said.

April is National Donate Life Month.

Profound gifts

Anna, a "beautiful girl," was 26 years old, married five years, a writer an an English major, she said.

"She was able to donate everything but her lungs and pancreas," Farrell said. "So, two kidneys, her heart and her liver."

Her liver recipient, Breanna — her last name withheld for medical privacy reasons — was an 18-year-old-girl living in Claremore, Oklahoma, who needed a transplant after getting Hepatitis A from from contaminated food.

Though extremely rare, the illness can "convert to full liver failure," albeit only 1% of the time, she said.

"She went from a perfectly normal healthy 18-year-old to literally almost dying on the operating room table waiting for a liver in the space of under 72 hours," Farrell said. 

Instead, she lived, went on to complete nursing school, got married and today is planning to have a child, working with a fertility specialist, Farrell said.

"So, she's gone on to have a wonderful life," she said.

Jimmy — his last name also withheld, the recipient of her heart — was a bit older — 58.

In the 10 years since he's had his transplant, he's had "six more grandchildren," and is "really living his best self," she said, with a "truly living family, having his happily ever after."

Farrell doesn't know the stories of her daughter's kidney recipients, but Breanna and Jimmy are as close as relatives.

Breanna was married on Anna's birthday, May, 25, her wedding festooned with sunflowers — her donor's favorite.

"And I still I get invited to all of Jimmy's family's significant events," she said. "... It's been a really a beautiful thing."

Hard choice

There never was a conflict with her daughter about being a donor, she said. 

But it is a hard choice for a lot of people, she she acknowledged, having counseled families herself. 

Farrell recalled her own sad time with cases on the procurement end, her first being "15 years or more" ago.

A three-year-old boy riding a tricycle had been struck by a car. The driver, who had the sun in her eyes, "never saw him, and by the time she saw him, it was too late."

She recalls kneeling in prayer and asking for strength.

"I couldn't imagine ever going through some kind of a tragedy like that," she said. "And frankly, I always wondered if I would be able to handle it or what I would do. But you never know until it happens."

Farrell said that in her own daughter's case, she began immediately communicating with the critical care nurse, looking over IVs and medications.

She knew people were waiting, and she wanted her daughter's death to mean something, she said. 

"I just went into my bossy mode," she said, telling medical personnel flatly that "I have the rest of my life to grieve. But right now we've got to save some lives."

Making decisions

Organ donation is not something to dwell on, but it's good for families to be prepared, she said.

"People need to have those conversations in their families, with their loved ones, so that if it ever does happen, everyone knows what everyone's intentions are," she said. "Obviously, emotions are high when it does happen. That's not the best time to make a decision like this."

Generally, the next of kin legally makes the choice, regardless of what someone may have on their drivers' license, she said.

That makes facing fears, and having a tough conversation, worth it, she said, as it means someone's wishes are explicitly known.

Local victories

Mindy Fluhr, a nurse at Hendrick Health, said she works as a liaison between Hendrick and Southwest Transplant Alliance, a Texas organ procurement agency.

In the past year, the hospital system had seven organ donors, recovering 18 organs and saving 16 lives, she said.

"This year, so far, we've already had one organ donor (and) two lives were saved," Fluhr said. 

A single donor can save up to eight lives, she said, though only three out of every 1,000 people who died do so in a way that allows donation to be possible.

About 20 people die each day waiting for an organ, while every 10 minutes a person is added to the national transplant waiting list, Fluhr said.

Making wishes known

A website, DonateLifeTexas.org, can help people register, Flurh said.

"In the state of Texas, if you sign up on that website, that's pretty much an authorization for you to be able to proceed as an organ donor,"  Fluhr said. "There are instances where you might feel differently than some of your family. And so that kind of gives you a way to make that choice."

But it's still best to speak to your family about your wishes, she said.

"You can let them know that you signed up and this is important to you, and (then) make your choices from there," Fluhr said, including research opportunities if your organs, for some reason, cannot be placed.

Hendrick Health itself does not do transplants locally, though it does assist in getting potential patients to where their organs can be recovered.

"Some of those potential patients, the organs could be recovered here in Abilene," she said, "Some of them they are sent to the facility in Dallas for our organ procurement organization."

As technology has improved, a wider variety of people can be considered potential donors, Fluhr said, which means more and more lives potentially saved.

"There just aren't as many things that would rule a donor out a patient out like there used to be in the past," she said. "Medicine is progressing quickly."

Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News.  If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.