From Memorial Health System
“Brittany’s smile could light up the room,” Ellen Duvernay says of her daughter.
Brittany was 26 when she was in a golf cart accident and tragically died from a traumatic brain injury. Now, her mother is on a journey to spread awareness about organ donation, the gift her daughter gave other families.
April is National Donate Life Month, and Duvernay hopes that by telling her story and highlighting Brittany’s commitment to organ donation, others will be inspired to become organ donors.
A TRAGIC LOSS INSPIRES HOPE
Upon learning that Brittany didn’t make it, her family also learned from the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency (MORA) that she was an organ donor.
“That was perfect for her because that’s what she did all the time; she gave, and she wanted everybody to be happy,” Duvernay says. “So, [organ donation] was an easy decision for us.”
Brittany could not have known that signing up to be an organ donor when she was younger would save multiple lives. According to Duvernay, her daughter went to get her driver’s license renewed when she was 18 and noticed the heart at the bottom of the license.
“And Brittany said, ‘Well, I want one of those,’” Duvernay recalls.
Her family didn’t know that she had signed up to become an organ donor. That decision allowed one woman to receive two healthy lungs and another man to receive a healthy kidney.
“Personally, it has helped with the grief journey because we were blessed to be able to meet the woman who received her lungs,” Duvernay says. “I felt like I was hugging Brittany. If Nancy, the recipient, had not received Brittany’s lungs, she would have only had two weeks to live.”
COMMITTED TO INCREASING AWARENESS
Duvernay now volunteers her time with MORA to encourage others to become organ donors.
“I was helping MORA at one of their signup events at Memorial, and a young man walked in,” she says. “I asked him if he was an organ donor, and he said ‘no.’ I asked him why, and he said organ donation was strange.
“I asked him one more question: What if your child was in the hospital and needed an organ to live? Would you want one to be available? His face was priceless as he said ‘yes.’ He signed up to become an organ donor on the spot.”
Duvernay adds, “There are so many misconceptions about organ donation, that it’s too expensive or that you won’t be taken care of if you are a donor. That’s not the case.”
To learn more about the need for organ donation in Mississippi, visit msora.org.
REGISTER TO BECOME DONOR
The Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency (MORA) is dedicated to saving and improving lives through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation. Every year, hundreds of thousands benefit from donated tissue and organs to regain their sight, mobility and even their lives. Every day, approximately 17 people die waiting for the organ that would have given them a second chance. In the United States, a new person goes on the waiting list every nine minutes. To register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, visit https://registerme.org.