According to Paul and Meagan, their two-year-old daughter Coralynn ended up in the hospital due to respiratory problems. Unfortunately, just 3 days later, the little child was declared brain dead, a dramatic consequence of the parainfluenza virus. The unfortunate parents had to deal with one of the most difficult things a family could possibly go through. The problems started when their daughter began experiencing problems breathing. When the little girl arrived at the hospital, she suffered cardiac arrest three times, and doctors had to perform CPR on her for 25 minutes.
It was successful, but there were serious complications. Unfortunately, the little girl sustained brain damage as a result of her heart stopping so many times. But the brave little girl was still alive, and her parents prayed to God that she would make it. Once she was stabilized, the little girl was able to be transferred. But during the third night at the hospital, her brain started to swell and an emergency CAT scan revealed the worst news possible. She was declared brain dead after a brief three-day battle.
Hours later, Meagan and Paul had to make the hardest decision of their lives. ”When we knew that she wasn’t ever going to wake and that she was gone mentally, we knew that she would want her organs to help people in need,” Meagan said. Days after her tragic death, the 22-month-old girl was taken to surgery. But it wasn’t a surgery to save her life, it was to possibly save the life of others. Her parents bravely shared video footage when their daughter was wheeled down the hallway to donate her organs to those who were in desperate need of them. The idea was to share the video so that family members who were not able to attend could take part of the emotional event.
In the video, family members and the hospital staff lined the hallways of the hospital to pay tribute to the little girl. The video also shows her mother whispering to her daughter: “you get to save three people, I love you forever”. After the surgery, the little girl was able to donate her heart and save a 1-year-old boy. Her liver saved a 1-year-old girl and her kidneys went to help a 41-year-old woman. The brave little girl didn’t survive, but she made a difference in the lives of others. “When your child donates their organs, they live on in someone else [and] they are saving people that otherwise [might] not be saved without your child’s gifts,” Meagan said.