Giving the gift of life through organ donation is not an easy decision.
April is Organ and Tissue Donation awareness month and Comanche County Memorial Hospital with LifeShare Oklahoma is remembering the seven donors and celebrating the selfless act they did to save 18 lives.
Larissa Krusinsky and her husband made the decision to donate her daughter Jaedyn’s organs after she passed away back in 2012.
“It’s never an easy decision to think of a friend, a family member coming to that end-of-life decision, but it’s so just important to think of,” she said. “You can help someone else not be in that same position.”
Krusinsky said Jaedyn was born with hydrocephalus – which means she had fluid on the brain. Krusinsky said Jaedyn went through several surgeries right after she was born. “When we brought her home, we just wanted her to have the best life possible,” Krusinsky said. “We didn’t focus on her disability, we just continued living. We had our family to support us. We had our church to support us, and life went on.”
Unfortunately, at 2 1/2, she had a seizure that ultimately took her life. She was flown to an Oklahoma City hospital, where several tests were done, and they realized she wouldn’t be coming back home with them. While they were in the hospital, LifeShare, an organ procurement organization, approached the Krusinsky to see if they would want to donate Jaedyn’s organs.
“So my husband and I sat down and prayed about it, and we made the decision that we didn’t want Jaedyn’s life to just be a normal life and just be gone at the end, so we decided to start the process of donating her organs,” she said.
Kim Gillespie, with LifeShare Oklahoma, said they work alongside the hospital and the donor’s families.
“We keep the family updated as we are trying to find different recipients for the gifts that the family has given or the donor has decided to give, and then we stay here at the hospital and support the family and the hospital staff through that process,” she said.
Krusinsky was reassured by the precautions and tests done.
“They don’t want to harm anyone,” Krusinsky said. “They only want the best, so just knowing that my daughter, even at 2 1/2 years, even with a disability, she was able to help save multiple lives.”
Jaedyn donated five of her organs to people between the ages of just under a year to 42.
“We are actually in contact with our heart recipient on a regular basis,” Krusinsky said. “We have been able to see him grow up. He’s currently almost 13, and it’s just such a blessing to know that my daughter lives on. He has character traits. They share favorite foods, and it’s just the little things about her in him that make me remember my daughter is not dead. My daughter is living on through someone else and helping him live.”
If you want to become an organ donor, have a conversation with your loved ones, so they know and then register through your state’s donor registry or when getting your driver’s license.
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