Through Her Tragedy This Mom Decided To Save Others
(This story originally aired on News Channel 7 in Spartanburg during April of 2005)

It’s a fear that all parents have.  For Susan Kilby that fear became a reality.   Out of her tragedy, Susan made the decision to help others. 

“Kilby’s life ended.  It was way too soon. Crossing the street he rode his bicycle into the path of a car. It was a tragic accident that on my heart left a scar.“  

That is part of a poem Susan Kilby wrote about her youngest son after his deadly bike accident.

“He loved animals of any kind.  [My children] played sports from the time they were little.  They played basketball and soccer...and baseball.”   Susan Kilby says.   

Following the accident, Susan and her family were asked a very tough question.  Would they donate Kilby’s organs?  He was on life support and had no chance of recovering.   

After some thought, they came to one conclusion about organ donation.  Susan says, “You know---don’t take them with you.  You don’t need them.   So give them to somebody else that can live a better life.“  

But it was and still is heart wrenching. Susan says, “It’s one of those things you hope you never have to make a decision for… I mean, even though I talked to my sons about it just shortly before my tragedy.  I would have never dreamed that one day as a parent I would have had to make that decision for my son.”   

Years later, Susan takes comfort in a quilt panel she made.  It shows the different organs Kilby donated.  Her healing process has also been in meeting one of the people who lives today because of Kilby’s gift.   

The lung recipient was himself a child.  Susan adds, “Very close to my son’s age.  He was born in July the year before my son was born a year later in August.  So they were just one year apart in age”. 

His name is Coby and they still keep in touch. Coby wrote a poem called, 

The Young and the Breathless 
I left Texas for North Carolina---a town called Chapel Hill
It was 5 or 6 months there about before a donor gave me new lungs and the doctors threw my old ones out
Now I can do what I always dreamed 
With these new lungs I can go to extremes 

Even in the tragic loss, Susan looks at this way, “Had we not donated his organs…he would still be dead and 5 people would not have had a better chance for life.”  

If you would like to learn more about organ donation, visit the Understanding Donation section of this web site.

Video produced and compliments of:
WSPA-TV
News Channel 7
Spartanburg, SC