Stories & Memorials
Family Support Team
Member Stories
Shannon
Miller,
1969 -1996
Submitted by Shannon's mom, Family Support Team member Darlene Aymerich
On Sunday October 27th, 1996 at
about 7:30 am, I received a phone call from the State Police telling me
that my daughter, Shannon had been injured in a motor vehicle accident. She was taken to ECMC hospital and that I should get there
ASAP. I arrived at the
hospital about 30 minutes later to be told that Shannon was in surgery.
I was told where the ICU (intensive care unit) waiting room was
located and I should go up there and wait although it may be quite awhile
before she would be there. Over
the next several hours that seemed like days, I made several phone calls
to family members and friends to let them know where I was and what had
happened. Several of my
family members joined me at the hospital and we all waited and prayed
together.
Finally, a doctor came into the waiting room to tell me about Shannon's condition. She had a laceration to the liver and they had a difficult time trying to stop the internal bleeding. He said presently they were doing some more tests and x-rays and when they were finished she would be brought up to ICU. After another eternity passed, they finally brought her up to the ICU and again I had to wait for the ICU nurses to get her settled and cleaned up before they would allow me to see her. When I finally walked into her room, she was hooked up to a ventilator (a machine to help her breath) and several IV (intravenous) lines. She did not have any facial injuries and although her face was slightly swollen and a little jaundice (yellow) from the injury to her liver, she appeared to be doing ok. I called her name and tried talking to her, but there was no response. I held her hand and it was soft and warm. It brought back memories of when I was in the hospital for the transplant with my brother 2 years earlier. When I woke up after surgery she was sitting next to my bed holding my hand and in her other hand was a can of diet Pepsi that I made her promise to have waiting for me when I came out of surgery.
Shortly after that 2 neurosurgeons came into the room and asked me if they could talk to me about the tests they had done on Shannon earlier. Shannon was not wearing her seatbelt when her accident occurred and she was ejected out the back window of her new Nissan pickup truck that she had owned for 3 months. That is how she got the laceration to the liver and a gash from a blow to the back of her head. They told me they had done several tests to check Shannon's brain activity and they were all negative. There was no brain activity on the EEG, no pain or pupil response, no blood flow to her brain. I am a nurse so I did understand what they were telling me, but I didn't want to believe it. They asked me to sign consent to do an apnea test which means they would take Shannon off the ventilator to see if she could breath on her own. She failed the test and she was reconnected to the breathing machine. When they told me the outcome of the test, they said it would be repeated again in several hours, but they were sure the results would be the same-Shannon was brain dead.
I was numb with pain. I was told that someone would be in to talk to me about some options I might want to consider. At that point another man came in and told me he was sorry to hear about my daughter's accident. He then asked me if I would consider organ/tissue donation. I answered, "Yes, definitely." That was the most tragic day of my life. As a parent I never thought about planning my daughter's funeral, I thought about planning her wedding. The only reason I was able to answer his question about organ donation was because I remembered the discussion Shannon and I had when I gave my brother a kidney 2 years earlier. She said "I'm so proud of you mom for what you are doing for Uncle Johnny, and I hope that someday I'll be able to save someone's life by donating my organs," which is exactly what she did. I don't know if I would have been able to make that decision at that time if we wouldn't have discussed organ donation previously. I know I did what she wanted to do and she's looking down now and saying "Thanks mom for letting me give the "Gift of Life."
submitted by Jason's mom, Stacie Pickel, Family Support Counselor
On September 3rd, 2000 my husband and I were driven to the airport by our 2 oldest boys-Aaron and Jason. We were on our way to Hawaii and then San Francisco for a 2 week “dream” vacation. Kissing our boys good bye we headed off on our journey.
Who would have known that just 2 days later we would have a message to please phone my sister- there had been an accident involving Jason? We called the number that was left and a voice answered ECMC—a trauma hospital in the area—I knew immediately that something very bad had happened. I spoke with my sister who said that Jason had been hit by a car and it was not good. He had a severe head injury. We needed to get home as soon as possible. She told me she would stay by his side until we got there-she wouldn’t leave him. My sister was my angel. She also said that they were going to do surgery-so I spoke with the surgeon. He stated that he was doing the surgery because he wanted to do everything possible--Jason was a young, healthy boy. We were able to get a flight out later that night. It took us all night and the next day to finally get home. I didn’t make any phone calls to the hospital during our trip home, because I didn’t want to hear what might have happened. I needed to keep my hopes. My brother and his wife met us at the airport—they wanted to prepare us for when we would see our son. When we arrived at the hospital, we were met by the rest of our families. Unfortunately, nothing could have prepared us for when we went in to see our son. To see him lying there with so many tubes in him, so many machines around him, his head bandaged and his face so swollen was a nightmare to us. To know that there was absolutely nothing we could do to help him. This wasn’t right-a parent is always suppose to be able to help.
The surgery didn’t help our son. They had already done the 1st brain death test. The 2nd test would be 6 hours later. Those 6 hours we stayed with our son and prayed for a miracle.
Prior to our arrival at the hospital our oldest son Aaron, along with my sister and brother, were approached for donation. Aaron felt we should do this. After we arrived at the hospital, we were later approached. We didn’t even need to think about this-the answer was yes. Knowing what a kind, giving person Jason was, we felt it was the only answer. To have anything positive come out of such a tragedy would be our blessing. This was going to be our miracle. Validating our decision, we later found Jason’s donor card.
On September 7th, Jason was able to donate 4 organs-2 kidneys, his liver and his heart. We knew whoever received these organs would have to be very special people-because Jason was. We have been very blessed to have met 2 of his recipients. And as we knew it would be, they are both very special people. One of his kidneys was transplanted into a 28 year old woman who had been on the waiting list for 6 years. What a wonderful person she is. Then we were able to meet Jason’s heart recipient. He , his wife and mother all came to our home to meet us. What a very wonderful, emotional day that was. As we talked and shared, it seemed as though we had known each other ourentire lives. Jason’s heart was in the right place-in this very kind, gentle, loving man.
Our Jason lives on in 4 people. That is the blessing.