Granger & Amber Smith’s Son Saved TWO Lives with Organ Donations
The Smiths are truly one the most remarkable families you'll ever meet. In the face of debilitating tragedy they are rallying and standing back up, together, stronger than ever.
After tragically losing their 3-year-old son, River, in June to a drowning accident, Granger Smith and his wife Amber were able to present Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin a check for $218,791 in honor of Riv.
The story has been touching hearts of people across the country. Soon after they said their final good-byes to their youngest son, the Smith family began selling the River Smith Tribute T-shirts. They did with the pledge that all the money the shirt generated would go to the hospital that tried so hard to save his life.
But monetary donations are not the only way young River's life has saved lives, and affected countless more. Over the weekend Amber shared exactly how her son's organs were able to directly save two lives; shining the national spotlight on the importance of being and organ donor.
From Amber Smith:
"I’ve always known I wanted to be a donor if anything were to ever happen to me. I just felt that if I had viable organs, why would I go into the ground with them? My spirit would be in Heaven, so why not save a life if I could? Never in a million years did I think I would be making that decision for my baby. When 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery (yes 0, not 10 or 1%, 0) after shock and reality set in, I thought, how can we bury our sweet baby and not try to help others?
His body is perfect, his organs are perfect, we had to do something. There are so many people waiting for an organ to save their lives. The doctors said donation was quite a process. We would have to search for viable recipients and it could take days. We knew River’s spirit was in Heaven, but we couldn’t bear to watch his tiny, earthly body be pumped full of all the medicines for 3 or more more days while they searched. They tried to expedite the process so our family could be in peace, told us they would take him back to operate the next morning, but we wouldn’t know what organs could be used until after. With such a small body, organs had to be measured physically, not just by X-ray.
I spent the night laying in bed with him, crying and talking to him while they kept running tests and taking blood. The next morning family and staff lined the hall for the “walk of honor”. We told them River liked to go fast, so to honor him, they pushed him down that hall faster than they had ever pushed anyone. Granger and I held each other and cried. We got the letter that our tiny, red-headed hero gave life to 2 adults. A 49 year old woman and a 53 year old man. I cried when we opened it. Cried out of sadness & cried out of love. I’m so proud to be River’s mama and I’m so grateful to God that he gave him to us for those incredible 3 years. I pray these 2 recipients live healthy, joy filled, full throttle lives just like Riv. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest, decisions we’ve ever made. There are over 113,000 people waiting for transplants & 20 people die each day waiting. Go to OrganDonor.gov to see how you can help give life as well. ❤️"
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