Amber Smith, wife of country singer Granger Smith, shared that the couple decided to donate their 3-year-old son River’s organs after his tragic drowning accident. The couple has since learned that the organ donation saved the lives of two people.
“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,” she wrote on Instagram Saturday (July 13), following her little boy’s death last month. (River Kelly Smith passed away on June 6.)
“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?” she continued. “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.”
Smith went on to describe the experience, explaining that “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.”
The family’s decision resulted in the gift of life to two individuals who were in need of new organs to survive.
“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,” she said.
Smith is encouraging others to visit OrganDonor.gov for more information about becoming an organ donor.
Read the update in full below.