To Give & To Receive
Loved ones live on through organ donation
William Hunt was game for just about any outdoor challenge, but his summer job as a whitewater guide in Colorado had rattled him. He’d seen too many injuries, even deaths. So, he quit and started the long drive home to Calgary.
The 21-year-old would never make it.
It was the summer of 2023 when he flipped his car south of Billings and suffered a major brain injury. He would never regain consciousness.
William’s sister Sydney Hunt remembers the devastating phone call and the frantic drive from Calgary to St. Vincent Hospital in Billings.
“We had always assumed we’d get a call that he had fallen off the side of the mountain or gotten eaten by a bear,” she says.
She remembers both she and her brother checking the organ donor box when they’d earned their licenses.
“But you never think it’ll be you,” she says.
She can chuckle now that, after William’s death, they discovered more than one fake ID in his wallet. Even those had the organ donor box checked, she says.
When Sydney, her parents and grandfather arrived at St. V’s, they were stunned to see William. He’d broken an arm and punctured a lung but “he looked totally normal,” she says.
What they couldn’t see was the major trauma to his brain.
Not a word was spoken to the family about organ donation until he was declared brain dead. At that point, the family chose to honor their son’s wishes.
“We knew there was no coming back,” Sydney says.
William’s heart was kept beating for five days as the organ procurement agency located recipients across the country. Ultimately, William’s body provided major organs that saved five lives. The Hunts, who have been in contact with three of those recipients, are inspired and comforted by their stories and William’s far-reaching impacts.
“When you’re having the worst day of your life, the thing that brought comfort was that there will be five families having the best day of their lives,” Sydney says.
Deanna Wittak of Billings never imagined her newborn son Jake would only survive by the grace of a liver donor. Born on Oct. 30, 2000, Jake was frail and sick early on. Several months later, blood tests revealed that he suffered from biliary atresia — a condition that necessitated a new liver. Deanna remembers struggling then, knowing that to keep her son alive meant someone else would lose a child.
“It was the worst feeling in the world,” she says. “A chaplain at the hospital talked with me at great length about that.”
On Sept. 11, 2001 — the day the World Trade Centers fell — Jake was checked into Denver Children’s Hospital. He had become so malnourished that his doctors wondered if he’d even survive a transplant. He was nearly a year old when a donor was found. The donor, Michael Arey, was 17 years old when he died. His liver was divided into two sections – the smaller going to save Jake, the larger going to save an adult.
Today, Jake is a thriving 23-year-old who loves to camp, hike, hunt and go four-wheeling. Not to mention, he’s worked at Home Depot since he was 15. He takes an anti-rejection medication daily and must stay on top of his health.
“But to look at him today,” Deanna says, “you would never know all that he has gone through.”
When Jake was 3 years old, the Wittaks contacted Michael’s family. Michael’s mother responded with gratitude and told them a bit about her son — about his smile, his interest in video games and cars and his affinity for goofy movies.
“Jake is all of those things,” Deanna says. Now, as a young adult, Jake keeps in touch with Michael’s sister, Megan.
“They have become very close,” Deanna says.
Both Sydney and Deanna have been so moved through their experiences with organ donation — by both giving and receiving — that they struggle to express the depth of their emotions.
“To all of the families that have lost a loved one and have unselfishly given the greatest gift, the gift of life, I want them to know that their loved ones live on,” Deanna says.
“When you’re choosing to be an organ donor, you’re not choosing to be a hero,” Sydney says. “It is the most selfless choice, a choice you will never see the results of. You are making a choice to leave your family with hope.”
