Could have been friends
If they had met, Darren Collins and Garrett Ross might have been friends. Both were athletic boys, devout in their Christianity and energetic in their endeavors. They shared a love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors.
Darren was a snowboarder. Garrett, who lives in Peyton, is a baseball player and rodeo rider. Darren was learning to play the guitar. Garrett wants to learn.
Instead, their paths crossed in tragedy. Darren's brain suddenly became infected and was shutting his body down. Garrett's heart - a transplant from when he was an infant - suffered irreversible coronary artery disease and was on the verge of stopping.
Two years earlier, Darren had decided to donate his organs. The subject of mortality came up after a friend died, and he and his mother discussed their wishes to be donors, Jansen said.
It was about this time that Garrett was sharing his personal story in presentations for the Donor Alliance, said Garrett's father, J.D. Ross. He was an advocate for the Buckaroo Ball, a fundraiser put together by state Sen. Tom Wiens and his wife, Diana, to benefit the Children's Hospital Research Institute. Garrett tried to participate in anything that would bring awareness to the impact of organ donations and Children's Hospital, Ross said.
When Darren died March 1, seven of his organs were removed for transplanting, his parents said. After signing the paperwork, Jansen prayed that if she could meet just one recipient's family, it would be the family of the recipient of her son's heart.
That moment would come sooner than anyone thought.
Goodbye to Megan
For the Rosses, Garrett's new heart was a joyful second chance, but it also meant saying goodbye to a girl who was never far from the family's thoughts.
In August 2000, the Rosses met the family who donated Garrett's first heart, which he received when he was 7½ months old from a girl named Megan. She was 2 when she died of a head injury after a day care provider shoved her into a cabinet in Hurst, Texas.
Her mother, Victoria Godley, cried at the sound of her daughter's beating heart inside Garrett. The Rosses pored over photos of the little girl, struggling to comprehend how someone could harm her.
Over the years, the Rosses have kept photos of Megan and consider her a part of their family. On the morning of March 2, with Megan's photograph tucked in a Bible, Garrett and his family prayed for her as he prepared to receive Darren's heart.
"I told him Megan had really done a great job for him in the last eight years," Ross said. "Now it was time for somebody else to help him in the next chapter of his life."
The Rosses knew they'd like to meet the new donor's family someday to thank them and express their condolences for their loss. They assumed, as with most donor/recipient meetings, that it would occur months, if not years, later, because of the Donor Alliance's privacy practices.
Instead, a transplant coordinator informed them a short time after Garrett's seven-hour surgery began that it was just a matter of stepping out the door.
A chance encounter
Darren's extended family had overheard members of the Ross family talking in the waiting area about Garrett's transplant. Darren's relatives realized the boy must have received Darren's heart, and the two extended families began talking and putting the pieces together.
They then asked staff members to offer an opportunity for the two sets of parents to meet, and the parents agreed.
J.D. Ross got down on his knees and thanked Darren's younger siblings for their brother's heart. He told them, "Garrett did not take this heart for granted. He will always remember it for the rest of his life."
The parents held hands and prayed and exchanged a few stories about Darren and Garrett.
"His world had to be absolutely ripped apart," J.D. Ross said about Darren's father, James Collins. "The very least we could do was to say thank you" and show them Garrett would always be loved and taken care of. "That little life (of Darren) wasn't lost in vain."
Darren's death - and the lives his organs have saved - also united two sides of his family that had been bitterly divided for years, said his parents, who are no longer together. Conversations and hugs have replaced conflict, Jansen said.
In their grief, his parents take pride in knowing the good that's come from their loss.
Collins and Jansen didn't get to meet Garrett before they returned to Wyoming to make arrangements for their son's funeral. But Jansen hopes she will someday get that chance. And when she does, she hopes Garrett might allow her to listen to the beating sounds of her son's gift in his chest.
That rhythmic thumpthump is already bringing comfort to Garrett, his father said. On Wednesday night, when the boy struggled to fall asleep, he was given a stethoscope and a chance to hear his new heart.
Afterward, Ross said, Garrett fell right to sleep.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0198 or bnewsome@gazette.com
HOW TO HELP
A fund has been set up to help the Rosses cover medical expenses. Donations can be made to Family Fund for Garrett Ross at any branch of Ent Federal Credit Union.
Author
Topic: amazing young man- part 1 (Read 709 times)