MONMOUTH COUNTY, Nj.– A New jersey teenager, who died last year, is helping others even after his death. The 15-year old’s organs and tissues were donated, helping save almost 100-hundred lives. His family met the woman who received his pancreas, on Sunday.
Missy Masse walked through the door of the New Jersey Sharing Network and into the open arms of the Bautista family. Masse’s six-hour drive from Williamsport, Pa. to Monmouth County, New Jersey may not have happened at all, if it wasn’t for the life-saving donation from their 15-year-old son.
Last May, Luke Bautista died in an accident at their home. The heart-wrenching decision was made by older brother C.J. to donate Luke’s organs.
“It’s pretty crazy you can take parts of him and put them in someone else. There’s living on now and improved Missy’s life and it’s pretty cool,” said CJ Bautista, Luke’s brother.
Missy needed a pancreas. The call came, the organ arrived, and after an 8-hour surgery at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Luke’s pancreas was working inside her body.
“I realized it was Mother’s Day and I was still here with my daughter as a mom and another mom was having to grieve to put her son at rest,” Missy Masse said.
Doctors say Luke’s tissue and organ donations helped save nearly 100 lives.
Luke’s mother Carla says it’s what he would have wanted, and for her, it even helps in the grieving process.
She says, “I couldn’t grasp it. I couldn’t grasp it. A piece of my son was gonna walk through that door, in a human, in another human. Really impossible to grasp.”
“I’m nervous, what do you say. I said ‘thank you’ but it doesn’t seem like it’s ever enough,” said Missy Masse.
Missy struggles to find the right words to say to the Bautista family, but her young daughter Katie knows how she feels.
“I was worried that some day she won’t be here with me,” says Katie Masse.
Thanks to Luke, she no longer has to worry.
