Country singer Granger Smith and his wife Amber lost their three-year-old son River last month. He passed away after drowning in an accident while the family was on a lake. The couple has spoken out about the incident and their continuing grief. Now they shared that they donated River’s organs and he saved two lives.
Granger shared an update with fans saying that they decided to donate River’s organs after they said their last goodbyes. Then Amber shared an update on Instagram that River saved two lives. She also spoke on how hard the decision was and the difficulty of the organ donation process.
Read her emotional post below
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Amber wrote, “I’ve always known I wanted to be a donor if anything were to ever happen to me. I just felt that if I had viable organs, why would I go into the ground with them? My spirit would be in Heaven, so why not save a life if I could? Never in a million years did I think I would be making that decision for my baby. When 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery (yes 0, not 10 or 1%, 0) after shock and reality set in, I thought, how can we bury our sweet baby and not try to help others?”
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Learn about the organ donation process
She continued, “His body is perfect, his organs are perfect, we had to do something. There are so many people waiting for an organ to save their lives. The doctors said the donation was quite a process. We would have to search for viable recipients and it could take days. We knew River’s spirit was in Heaven, but we couldn’t bear to watch his tiny, earthly body be pumped full of all the medicines for 3 or more days while they searched. They tried to expedite the process so our family could be in peace, told us they would take him back to operate the next morning, but we wouldn’t know what organs could be used until after. With such a small body, organs had to be measured physically, not just by X-ray.”
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“I spent the night laying in bed with him, crying and talking to him while they kept running tests and taking blood. The next morning family and staff lined the hall for the “walk of honor”. We told them River liked to go fast, so to honor him, they pushed him down that hall faster than they had ever pushed anyone. Granger and I held each other and cried. We got the letter that our tiny, red-headed hero gave life to 2 adults. A 49-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man. I cried when we opened it. Cried out of sadness & cried out of love. I’m so proud to be River’s mama and I’m so grateful to God that he gave him to us for those incredible 3 years.”
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Learn how you can sign up to be an organ donor as well
Finally, she shared her prayers for the organ recipients, “I pray these 2 recipients live healthy, joy-filled, full-throttle lives just like Riv. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest, decisions we’ve ever made. There are over 113,000 people waiting for transplants & 20 people die each day waiting. Go to OrganDonor.gov to see how you can help give life as well.”
It is still so sad to hear of River’s passing, but touching that he was able to save two lives. We send our thoughts and prayers to Granger, Amber and their families at this time.