Jake was an all-American boy. He loved sports, playing X-Box and hanging out with friends and family. He was large in stature but even bigger in heart — compassionate and kind. A young man who truly enjoyed life and all it had to offer. And as it happens, his mother was a long-time organ and tissue transplant coordinator at a large medical center.
On Saturday, September 17, 2004, while playing in a high school freshman football game, Jake collapsed. He was airlifted to the hospital, where it was learned Jake had sustained a head injury causing massive swelling of his brain. After many hours, the family’s worst nightmare came true —Jake’s brain could not survive the injury and it was determined he was brain dead.
During the time after her son’s death, Jake’s mother faced work friends and colleagues in an entirely different light. She spoke in person with Donor Alliance; people she had spoken to in the past on behalf of others. Jake’s mom knew fellow transplant coordinators were organizing efforts to find recipients who would receive her son’s organs and tissues. This time, she was the donor family.
Though they had never had a specific discussion about organ and tissue donation, Jake grew up being exposed to transplant recipients and knew what a tremendous gift donation represented. He was an incredibly generous, kind and giving individual who had a tendency to always look out for others. This made the family’s decision to donate his organs and tissues very natural. It was what he truly would have wanted, knowing he had the ability to offer a gift of life to someone else.
Jake experienced each part of the circle of life. He lived his life fully in just 14 years, then, in death helped others live theirs to the fullest as well.