No greater love has no one than to lay down his life for another -John 15:13
A phone call in the middle of the night is seldom good. So when I answered my phone around 3 am I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to hear. It was my daughter telling me her brother, my son, was in the emergency room for an unspecified head injury. I hurriedly got dressed and sped that way.
When I arrived in the ER I headed to the triage window to ask about Matt, they gave me a look that silently said, he’s not in good shape. They told me he was being moved to ICU and a nurse took me up. I got there before he did. I didn’t know what to expect, I was told he had an internal brain bleed and they had to do more testing to determine how bad it was.
I was standing in the waiting room when they rolled his bed by. I was startled by what I saw. He had a neck brace on, he was intubated and on a ventilator. I realized at this time my son was not going to make it, in fact he was more than likelyalready gone.
I was alone. I called my dad and told him what was going on. I called my wife and asked her to come. I called my daughter and updated her. Matt’s mom, was already on her way. Matt’s wife was arranging a place for the kids. By 9 o’clock the waiting room and Matt’s room were jammed with family from his and Vanessa’s.
The doctor confirmed what we already knew but we’re trying desperately not to say. MRI test showed a massive bleed and it was likely brain death. There was one more test they needed to do. They would wait until Saturday morning to do that confirmation test.
We spent most of that day being one family and praying for Matt. We wondered what it would be like for life without him. How would Vanessa and the kids do without him?
When Saturday came around the test was completed and we all had the answer we didn’t want to hear.
As I stood beside the bed holding my son all I could think of was for a miracle and why did God need Matt. Why my son? Why did this have to happen to our family? The answer to those questions was placed in my mind immediately.
The overcrowded hospital room, waiting area and conference space was simply because of the love showed by my son. Almost simultaneously we were told he was an organ donor and would we honor that request. My immediate thought was of course we will. I wouldn’t allow anything to get in the way of this.
In trying to make sense of this one of my prayers was to ask God why my Matt? That immediate response was a clarity of why should I be any different than Him? Afterall he sacrificed His son for the sake of us all. So my Matt was able to lay down his life to save so many others.
This wasn’t a calling Matt thought would happen quickly, even though he had checked the organ donor box on his license at an early age. He had made a life changing decision for those he didn’t know.
I was the last one out of Matt’s room almost 48 hours after I had gotten there. They were preparing to take Matt to the Indiana Donor Network, I wasn’t strong enough for that. I walked out on that early morning Father’s Day, a different man.
My 37 year old son, husband and father of two was dead. But he is a Hero.
