SPRINGVILLE, Utah—Brandon Curtis was 18 when he was killed in a rollover crash at the Springville High parking lot. His death impacted an entire community. His death continues to make an impression, this time saving people's lives.
"When he first got his driver's license he asked both of us what it meant to be an organ donor. And we explained it to him and he said 'gosh, well if I’m dead and they can use parts of my body, then why not,'" said Brandon's father Jesse Curtis.
But Brandon's parents never imagined that their son's organs would someday save lives. His eyes now belong to a 40-year-old Orem woman. His heart is now beating again within a 66-year-old man’s chest. And his bones, used in an operation to help a 15-year-old Centerville boy, once wheelchair bound, is now able to walk again.
"We know through Brandon's donation that he lives on in a lot of ways. It's a gift to us, to see the lives he's blessed because that was truly him. He was a giver," says Brandon's father. "To have that as kind of a last thing he gave, even after death, which is just awesome, awesome."
Brandon's mother, Dianne Curtis, had a coincidental meeting with a Tooele woman a year after her son's death. A stranger at the time, the woman asked Dianne directions to the cemetery where Brandon was buried and the location of his gravesite.
"She said, 'a year ago today I received a kidney and a pancreas from your son.'" says Brandon's mother. "She said after the surgery, she was laying there, she said she closed her eyes and she said she saw him, and because he was in the paper, she recognized him and said 'that's the boy, that's the boy I saw,'" said Brandon's mother.
Brandon's parents say their loss continues to give so many a new lease on life and they are sharing their story in hopes of inspiring others to become organ donors.
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