Jessica- Donor Mom
T oby Lee Braxton Hall was born with a smile on his face. He was always smiling. You knew his heart was made of gold. When I got the call at 3pm on Friday August the 29th 2014, I was alone and driving. It was the longest red light of my life. It’s a flash back that will never leave my mind. By the time I got to him at the hospital the EMT’s had already brought his heart back, but he was on a ventilator to help him breathe. At that point, not knowing any details all we had was hope. He was rushed to a children’s hospital where we soon learned the depth of what had happened. By then we knew that hope had turned in to time, that we didn’t have much of. Several tests had to be completed before the doctors could say for sure the words that we didn’t want to hear.
On September 2nd 2014 at 1:12am the last test was complete, and the words time of death shattered all the hearts in the room. We knew our little boy had something special to give, and that his time wasn’t over, during the five days in the hospital his little heart never once needed help. It was the strongest heart the doctor said he’d ever seen and that’s when we knew donating to a baby in need was the best decision that we could make. We got to stay an extra day with him, and on September 3rd 2014 at 10am the surgeons rolled our little boy out of the room to donate his heart to a little boy, his liver to a little girl and to combine his kidneys into one for a 29 year old woman. He saved 3 lives. We recently got to contact Toby’s heart recipient. His name is Daniel and is doing wonderful, we meet up time to time it’s so amazing getting to hear my babies heart after so many years ! Toby gets to live on through these 3 special people who are so dear to my heart. Donating was the best decision we have ever made and has helped my family cope with his loss , because we know that he is still going strong, never gone, and never forgotten. Always our sweet baby boy, Toby Lee Braxton Hall. |
