IF YOU COULD SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE...MAYBE SOMEONE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW...WOULD YOU DO IT?  

by David Lively

Seven years ago, our youngest son did just that.  In fact, he saved three lives.

Did he run into a burning building?  Did he pull them from a terrible automobile accident?  He didn't do either of those things.  He simply told his mom and me that if anything ever happened to him he wanted to be an organ donor.

Because of Adam's Gift of Life, Ken and his new heart are doing very well in Mississippi. Donna's son, Cody, doesn't have to call 911 because his Mom has collapsed in a diabetic coma.  One of Adam's kidneys went to a lady in Illinois...one kidney went to a little boy in Louisiana.  Adam's liver recipient died after three years because of an illness not related to his transplant.  I had the chance to talk to one of his sons and he expressed his thanks for the years they were able to spend with their Dad.

In all, 52 people benefited from Adam's gift.  Tissue donations are used to help people who are horribly burned.  Veins are used in open-heart surgery. Bone and connective tissue are used to treat a whole variety of injuries.

There are 88,000 people on the list waiting for an organ.  Today, 17 of them will die because there are not enough donors.
Consider donation...tell your family. Who knows...your life might be saved...by someone you don't even know.

David Lively, Adam's father contributed this article.  He further goes on to say: Adam was a senior at East Tennessee State University at the time of his accident.  He was twenty-two.  He and some friends were headed back to school one rainy night...the young man driving swerved to miss a dog...the Toyota Landcruiser rolled.  There were seven boys in the Toyota...Adam didn't have his seat belt fastened and hit his head.  All of the other boys were uninjured.  Adam had a closed skull fracture and died four days later. We have two living sons, Mark and David.  They are both married and have families of their own. I have often thought of Adam's gifts as hand me down clothes.  They were perfectly good, someone else could use them...and he didn't need them anymore.