4 minute read
Don’t Take Your Organs To Heaven
from April 2020
22 // April 2020 by Tammy Madden
Tammy Madden is the proud mother of Megan Madden, who received a heart transplant on 03/07/03. About The Author W hen you hear the doctor say, “She won’t live without a new heart,” how does one process those words? You can’t. Not without God. You get on your knees and you pray. You pray hard. Two states away, there is a baby on life support with a brain injury so bad there is no life left in him. The doctors tell his parents, “He’s no longer here.” We are keeping him alive with our machines. Then the transplant team comes in and asks the hardest question they will ever hear: “Would you like to donate his organs?” There are children waiting for hearts, lungs, kidneys…What does that family do? They have to give it to God too. What does one do in each of these cases? We all pray. Let me tell you from our end. Our own daughter was a heart recipient. Seventeen years ago, we had to decide if it was something God would want. We prayed, and we believed organ donation was the way to go. With two hours left to live, our daughter’s heart came in. With that being said, let me just say that without that heart, we would have never been granted these past beautiful 17 years.
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We have raised her in church. We have watched her learn to sing praises to our Heavenly Father. We have watched as she swam with dolphins. We have watched as she took Cinderella by the hand and danced at Disney World: not once but twice so far. We have watched her touch lives with her testimony and bring people to the Lord. We have watched her eyes light up as the plane took off for her first flight ever! We have watched her start kindergarten and held her while she cried that first day, and this year, as she entered her junior year, even as a special needs child, the tables turned; she held me this time while I cried watching her grow up.
We have watched her get to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and enjoy all the sights and rides there. We have gotten to hold her hands and walk along the beach and see her smile in wonder as she found many of God’s blessings along the way in the seashells and sand. We have been able to see her dress up for her first dance and dance the night away even though she must use her walker. Next year, we will watch in amazement as she walks across that stage to get her high school diploma while our eyes fill with tears of happiness. Through everything we have been blessed with from her new heart, the most precious thing we have witnessed is the day we met her donor family. Her donor’s mom walked into our house, and at this point, Megan refused to let anyone touch her but me. She was still a baby. But not this beautiful woman: the minute she reached for Megan, she practically jumped into her arms! She told us later that when she told her preacher about how Megan came right to her, her preacher said, “You know, Sarah, you have held that little heart in your arms many times!” What a blessing organ donation became that day: not just on our side but, I believe, on theirs, too. They know their son will live on in our baby girl. I just hope we can make him proud. So in this month of honoring Organ Donation, I ask you, please, “Don’t take your organs to Heaven; Heaven knows we need them here.”
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