Dad's diary tells emotional story of 11-month old son's heart transplant, Dallas, Texas

by SHELLY SLATER / WFAA

khou.com

DALLAS -- Two families have been brought together by love... and loss.

The Carys' baby boy got a heart transplant that saved his life on March 16, 1995.

Exactly 15 years later, the Storch family donated their daughter's organs after a skiing accident.

While the outcomes were very different, both families share the same passion for organ donation.

David Cary scribbled some notes in 1995 when his son was hospitalized.

"Don, your nurse arranged you in a rocking chair for Mommy so she could hold you. She was so excited, it was beautiful and pitiful. There you were, right where you belong, in Mommy's arms."
The words sum up the pain of almost losing an 11-month-old boy.

"We were having a discussion with our minister about getting ourselves prepared for death very soon," Cary recalled.

To help cope, David Cary wrote down his every honest thought.

"It hurts seeing you, and it hurts not seeing you. You had wires, hoses, pumps, tapes, stickers, needles hooked all over you. That's not the way it's supposed to be."

Trenton needed a new heart. His had grown too big for his body.

"We kept praying, 'We need a heart available.' Well, are we praying for a baby to die?"

Day by day, those struggles — the highs and lows — all ended up in David Cary's journal.

"I wrote it to Trenton. 'Today you did this, and you're in this condition...' telling myself as I'm writing it that he's going to be okay, and one day he's going to read this," Cary said.

Fast-forward 16 years, and this is that moment — the first time Trenton heard the words from his dad's diary during a church service.

"The cardiologist said he was driving 75 mph, but was not expecting to find you alive."

On March 16, 1995, Trenton got his new heart.

Fifteen years later to the day, the family of Taylor Storch made the decision to donate hers after a skiing accident took her life.

The day the Storches heard their daughter's heart beating inside Patricia Winters was documented by News 8, and it touched thousands in North Texas and around the nation.

It is its Todd Storch's passion for organ donation that brought him to the Carys' church in support.

"It's an amazing journey of hope; it's an amazing journey of faith; and it helps a family move on," Storch said.

David Cary was grateful for the Storch family's support. "I think they're inspiring everybody," he said — especially donor recipients.

Taylor's story reminds Trenton how amazing the gift inside him really is.

"I'm really trying to live my life; he didn't get to live his. So I have to make sure I live my life for me and for him," Trenton said. "He's still a part, he's still alive."

Much like Taylor, who sends her parents little signs of encouragement. Like the other day, when the sun was setting and projected the image of a cross coming out of her room.

"This story about Taylor is a story about love and the gift from within," Cary said. "So many people have been touched by her heart."

And that is why the Carys are opening up Trenton's story to others.