JEREMY ALM
JALM@KJCT8.COM
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) -- Nationally, over 104 thousand people are on the waiting list to receive an organ transplant; almost 2 thousand of them are here in Colorado.
One local family made the difficult decision to donate their 15 year old son's organs. Less than a week ago, the Embrey's lost their son to a heart attack.
The decision to donate his organs was a difficult choice they don't regret.
"My mom woke him up to go to school and he wasn't breathing," says Lisa Embrey about the morning they found her son, McKenna, suffering from cardiac arrest.
A morning that shocked the family, "I love him so much and I miss him. And I don't know where to go without him."
Lisa Embrey says he wasn't the type of kid who had health problems.
"He was (a) tremendous athlete."
McKenna was on a respirator for two days before doctors told his family there was no more hope.
"It was devastating. It happened so fast that he was, you know, one second he was here and the next second he was gone," says Embrey.
It was then the family decided to donate his organs.
"It was (a) very hard decision for me but I chose to, you know, allow McKenna to help someone else... McKenna was all I had," says Embrey.
Donor Alliance is a non-profit group that coordinates organ donors with recipients. They say people like McKenna are heroes.
"Some one will have a great long life because of McKenna," says Embrey.
Donor Alliance says it changes a recipient's life forever. Three of McKenna's major organs went to donors and many more could benefit from his gift.
Some day McKenna's family wants to meet the people who received his organs. They want see their sons spirit live on in others.
Donor Alliance says Colorado is one of the top states for people who volunteer to be organ donors.
65 percent of people with drivers licenses and state IDs designate themselves as donors.
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