Family of Anthony Chase and Perry Smith Meet for First Time

On Wednesday, January 19th, Perry Smith, a 64-year-old transplant recipient from Texarkana, met the family of Anthony Chase, the 22-year-old organ donor who gave Perry his heart. The meeting took place at the offices of ARORA in Little Rock.

Anthony had been riding a bicycle on September 18, 2003 when he was struck by a car and fatally injured. Anthony’s family consented to donate his kidneys, heart, liver, bone, soft tissue, corneas and veins at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, where he was transported following his accident. Perry Smith received Anthony’s heart at Baptist Health Medical Center after being on the waiting list for two years.

Shirley Smith, wife of recipient Perry Smith, shares a moment with donor mom, Barbara Chase.

Both the Smith and Chase families were eager to meet each other and to share their stories with the public in the hopes that it would encourage other families to discuss organ donation and to register as donors.

The meeting was covered by both broadcast and print media. Both families also appeared on an early morning news show the next day.

ARORA encourages recipients to remember their donor families by writing to them.

Writing the donor family can make the difference in how they feel about their decision to donate and can offer some closure to their tragic situation. The correspondence can take the form of a letter, note or card. Recipients are asked to not sign their last name to protect confidentiality. The correspondence is then forwarded to the donor family. The privacy of both donor family and recipient is always respected . Some recipients never have contact with their donor family, but others correspond occasionally and some families have even met each other, as in the case of the families of Anthony Chase and Perry Smith.

Maclaine Elise Loomis
July 3, 1999 - July 6, 1999,

It's just a small little mark. Many of you probably didn't even notice it.

That last little comma is so easy to overlook - just like it would be so easy to overlook her short life. But that last little comma holds a very big meaning for us - it means that July 6, 1999 was not the end of Maclaine's story, just a little pause...

Maclaine's "arrival" on July 3, 1999 changed our lives forever. Sometimes, I think that she had a bigger effect than our other children, but then I realize that it wasn't really a bigger effect, it was just more concentrated, since she was only here for those three short days. God blessed us so much by giving us that time with her. In those three short days though, we got to hold her, and love and kiss her, and we even got to give her a little bath and dress her. We all had a chance to spend time with her - time to take pictures and video. Her sisters got a chance to know she was real and to be "big sisters." We got a chance to dedicate her and her short life to the Lord, and shortly thereafter, we returned her to His eternal care. Most importantly, Maclaine got a chance to be an organ donor - to give the "gift of life" - that very thing which she was not able to hold on to for herself, and a very precious little boy got a chance to live a long and healthy life.

We didn't expect Maclaine's birth to be any different than any of her sisters'. There were no major problems during the pregnancy nor anything to indicate that trouble was to be expected. When her delivery did not progress as expected, the doctor decided that a cesarean section would be required. Even at this point, Maclaine showed no signs of distress and there were no indications that this would be anything besides a routine operation and birth.

At 11:31 p.m. that evening, Maclaine was born, but there were no newborn cries as expected. Maclaine was not breathing and had little or no pulse. The doctors and staff of the Ouachita County Medical Center worked to revive her - they were able to get her heart beating normally again, but she required assistance to maintain her breathing. A helicopter ambulance was called to transport her to Arkansas Children's Hospital for a more thorough evaluation and treatment. Sometime around 4:00 in the morning of July 4, "Our Little Angel" earned her nickname, taking off on that AngelFlight to Little Rock .

From the very first time we talked to the doctors there at Children's, we knew there was very little chance of seeing all those hopes and dreams we had for Maclaine's life come to be. She had no reflexes and her pupils didn't dilate when exposed to the light. The doctors said that a scan of her brain showed "some of the worst swelling they had ever seen." The doctors were always honest and straightforward and never lead us to have any false hope for Maclaine's recovery. We could feel how much the doctors and staff there at Children's truly cared for us and Maclaine - just like those at OCMC - and we could tell they hurt along with us as we all knew that Maclaine would shortly be called home into God's arms.

We realized that God's plans for her life would be different that those we had hoped for. We knew He must have a very special task for her – one that required her to be with us only a short time - and we found out that He had some very special blessings in store for us too. While going through one of the most painful and heartbreaking times in our lives, God seemed to have blessings and comforts for us each and every day. While none of them could replace those hopes and dreams we had for Maclaine, we have never felt so loved and cared for. As we looked back, we can see all the special things that God did to prepare and help us through this time – to make things a little "easier." God sent so many special, wonderful people into our lives during those days – all the doctors, nurses, and the rest of the staff at OCMC and Children’s, the people of the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency and the Ronald McDonald House, all our coworkers, and of course, all our family and friends and church family. God wrapped His arms around us and brought our family together with one heart and mind – to the point that we could almost complete one another's sentences. All the decisions we had to make during that time just seemed to fall right into place.

I think the decision to allow Maclaine to be an organ donor caught the staff there in Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit a little by surprise. In most cases, the medical staff approaches the family about organ donation, but in our case, we were doing the asking of them. We asked if she might be able to be an organ donor and what steps would we need to follow. The NICU staff did not have all those answers - but they promised to find out. Most of the babies there usually have problems that prevent them from being organ donors. In fact, none of their patients had been an organ donor since they had moved into their new location in the hospital - about a year and a half. Maclaine was about to bring a new experience into this NICU at Children's.

An EEG taken Monday morning showed the same results as the test done Sunday morning - Maclaine had no brain activity. Whatever had happened – whatever had gone "wrong", there were no decisions to make about what treatments to try or what we needed to do. God relieved us of all the pressure and the heart wrenching of making those decisions about her life or "quality of life". All we could do is return her to Him. After one final test on Tuesday morning that failed to show the even slightest amount of brain activity, Maclaine was declared brain dead just after noon . After talking to the ARORA counselors and signing all the necessary paperwork and answering quite a length of questions concerning our family medical history, the search began that afternoon - the search for those waiting for the gift of life.

Knowing that our time with Maclaine was quickly drawing to an end, we - as a family - bathed her and dressed her in a beautiful pink dress her grandmother had crocheted. Her "biggest" sisters worked hard to clean all the glue out of her hair that the EEGs had left. Then, surrounded by her family and our friends, our pastor led in her dedication. We thanked God for her – regardless of how short our time together was. We prayed that God would use her life – both in the effect it had on all of us and also by being able to help extend or save the lives of others through organ donation. After the dedication, everyone got a final chance to hold her and say his or her goodbyes. Her grandparents and sisters left for home early that evening, leaving Karen and I to spend a last few quiet hours with her.

But those last few hours weren’t really all that quiet though. Maclaine’s care was now under ARORA’s direction – not the Children’s doctors - and they were monitoring her closely and making adjustments and administrating medications that, hopefully, would increase the chances that any organs she donated would be successfully received. They were recording her vital statistics about every fifteen minutes to be able to report to the doctors and teams interested in her organs. Even with all this activity going on, everyone was still so respectful of Maclaine and us. They worked around us when we were holding her and even, at times, just read her vitals statistics through the window so they wouldn’t disturb us.

I remember that wait was about like waiting for the score of a ball game that you weren’t getting to see or hear first hand. Almost every time one of the ARORA counselors would come by, we wanted to know "any word yet." Well, about 10:00 p.m. we "scored a few points." There was a little boy in Michigan that needed a new heart, and he and Maclaine looked to be a perfect match in size. We had been told how important size was in organ transplants in children and especially infants - a few weeks of growth could determine whether an organ could fit or not. A team was preparing to head to Arkansas to examine, recover, and deliver her little "gift of life" back to Michigan . Because of her "small" size, however, her heart was all that could be matched. Regardless of how many lives could be helped or saved, we knew that God had a perfect plan and that organ donation was definitely a "winning move."

Time to say our final goodbyes came about 1:00 a.m. on the morning of July 7. The team from Michigan would be there shortly and I knew we needed to be out of their way - there was a little boy waiting for a heart. It wasn’t so much a "goodbye," but more a "see you later." We knew that we would get a chance to see and hold her again – when our days here on Earth had drawn to an end. We gathered up all Maclaine’s things – we were amazed how much she had accumulated in those three days - and left her in God’s care.

In a hospital in Michigan, a little two-month old boy waited for a heart.

Little Samuel was born on May 7, 1999. He was about three weeks early and a little small – about four and a half pounds – but God was watching over him and protecting him. Samuel was delivered by cesarean section about 3:30 p.m., and spared the stress of a "normal" birth, which he would have most likely not survived. Shortly after being born, it was noticed that Samuel was having trouble breathing and that his coloring "just wasn’t right." Samuel was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit for more test and exams.

After three days of tests, a problem was found with Samuel’s heart - pulmonary atresia with intact septum and stenotic coronary arteries, and a solution was also found – a heart transplant. On May 12,1999, Samuel was placed on the National Donor Registry List as a priority "1A" – the most critical and most urgent.

As they waited Samuel’s mom and dad and big brother and their family and friends prayed that Samuel would get the heart he needed, but their prayers were tempered a little by knowing the cost that Samuel’s new heart would come with. They knew that for Samuel to get the heart he so desperately needed, that another family would face the loss of their child. So as they prayed for Samuel, they also prayed for that other family – not knowing who they would be or what their circumstances would be or even knowing for sure that the heart would come in time. They had faith that God would answer their prayers for Samuel, but they faced the possibility that Samuel might not get the heart he needed in time and decided that if that was God’s will, they would be willing to let Samuel be an organ donor to help those others that waited still. His family and the hospital held a news conference, making an appeal for more organ donations, telling about little Samuel and his need for a heart. They knew that their appeal might not end up helping Samuel directly, but they knew there were still others out there waiting for those "gifts of life."

On the night of July 6th, they got the call they had been waiting for. A possible donor heart had been found for Samuel. A recovery team left Detroit and headed south to check out to heart to make sure it would work for Samuel. At about four o’clock that next morning, the word came – the heart was a match. Samuel was readied for his part of the surgery while the recovery team brought his "gift of life" back to Detroit. His mom and dad spent some special time holding and loving Samuel – they knew that there was no guarantee the surgery would be successful and there were many things that could go wrong. At about 5:00 a.m., Samuel went into surgery, his fate and future was in the hands of a transplant team working with a tiny gift of a new heart and in the hands of God that guided and protected them all.

Eight hours later, Samuel had a new heart and a new hope for life.

He grew bigger and stronger every day, and his family and the hospital held another news conference, sharing the good news about Samuel’s new heart – praising the skill of the transplant team, thanking the donor family, thanking God for all His blessings and care, and reminding everyone that more organ donors are needed for all the other people waiting for the "gift of life." Only three and a half weeks after getting his new heart, Samuel got to go home from the hospital on July 31.

In September of 1999, we sent ARORA a letter to offer to the family of the little boy that received Maclaine’s heart. We wanted them to know a little bit more about "Our Little Angel" and her family. We wanted them to know how much God cared for us through her short life and death and that we knew that God was in control of all things and that we were trusting in His plans. Most of all, we wanted them to know that we were praying for them – that God would bless them and that watch over them all.

In late October, a package arrived at our door. Even though it was small, it held a lifetime of love and thanks. Inside, a letter from the recipient family, a beautiful angel ornament holding a heart engraved, "To my little angel, love Samuel", three angel-bear pins for our girls, and a photograph of a precious, smiling little boy. It seemed like Christmas had come a little early that year. We were so overjoyed to hear about Samuel and how well he was doing. We had prayed back on that night in July, that the family of this little boy would love him and care for him just like we would have loved and cared for Maclaine, and that they would teach him to truly appreciate the "gift of life" that he had received and to thank God for all His protection and care.

Also in that package was a form – a form to sign allowing ARORA to release our personal information to Samuel’s family if they would like to contact us directly. Sue and Steve had said in their letter that they would like to stay in touch with us if we would like and that they had already authorized the release of their information. We signed it and mailed it back to ARORA the very next day. 

About a week later, one Wednesday night after church, the phone rang. We ended up talking to Sue and Steve for about two hours that night.

As much as it hurt to lose Maclaine, it has been just as much of a joy to know Sammy and Steven and Sue and Steve. They have become family to us – truly another blessing from God. They have reciprocated Maclaine’s "gift of life" by sharing Sammy with us.

Over these last two years, we have gotten to share in all the wonderful events in his life – and we have also shared in the times of concern. As Sammy gets bigger and stronger and get all those teeth for a nice, big smile, we get to see the new pictures. When he took those first little steps on his own and started walking, we got to hear the good news that very day. And when Sammy gets sick with an ear infection, we know and we pray for God to watch over and protect and heal him. And when time comes for one of his biopsies to check for rejection, we are praying – and we rejoice when we get the good news that not the least sign of rejection has been found.

Sammy and his family have been so much more than we ever hoped and prayed for that night. I have said if she would have been able to donate all her organs, and all the recipients and families responded like this, we would have been simply overwhelmed. In May of 2000, we got to celebrate a most wonderful occasion with them - his first birthday! Sammy and Steven and Sue and Steve came down to visit, just in time for Sammy’s first birthday. They got to meet our family and see where Maclaine would have grown up. We got to hold little Sammy ourselves and see that smiling face and share a few days with him and his family. And we got to listen to that heart beating again – a first hand experience of the wonder and miracle of the "gift of life."

We hope Maclaine and Sammy’s story will touch people’s hearts and impress on them the importance of organ donation. There are so many more people out there waiting on that "gift of life" – children, teenagers, and adults of all ages. There are people that are days or even hours away from running out of time to wait. We need everyone to be willing to be an organ donor. Then, we need everyone to make sure your family knows your wishes concerning organ donation. That’s all there is to it – be willing and make sure your family and friends know.

We are always so happy to be able to share our own experiences with anyone that would like to hear. We wear buttons every day with Maclaine and Sammy’s pictures that say, "I’m a Donor’s Dad/Mom!" When someone asks about the buttons, we have a chance to tell their story and all about organ donation. For those times when they don’t have time to listen to the full story or if they just want to know a little more, we have created a website in Maclaine’s memory and in Samuel’s honor – www.clainescorner.com There you can read much more of their story, see pictures of Maclaine and Samuel and their families, find links to websites with more information about organ donation and infant loss, and read the latest updates on Sammy and watch him grow. Please feel free to visit "The Corner" and leave us a little note in the guestbook. And if you have any questions for us or need any information we can help you with, email links are there in the frame on the left.

When we tell about Maclaine and Sammy and the "gift of life," it’s like she’s living on - actually, a part of her is. Her little heart beats on today in a special little boy up in Michigan.

Would you like to add a "," to your life too? Be an organ donor.