“As a donor father, I have found great comfort in knowing the lives were saved and improved by my children’s donation. At age five and five months, Carson and Claire died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash on May 6, 2010. Devastated, twice in 24 hours, with their mother in a coma, I made the decision for each of them to become donors. They would be decisions that would fundamentally change my life for the better.
Carson and Claire’s legacy is the lives of those people, including a then three-month-old boy, with end stage heart failure days, if not hours, from dying, who lives today because he received her heart. Getting to know Claire’s heart recipient, Landen, and his family and seeing the joy that he brings to the world has brought me comfort and healing. Telling Carson and Claire’s organ donation story through Iowa Donor Network has allowed me to honor their memory and ensure they are never forgotten.”
--Troy De Joode, Donor Father