Positivity: Oklahoma Cheerleader Meets Parents Of Liver Donor Who Saved Her Life
From Oklahoma City (video at link):
Posted: Feb 17, 2012 7:10 PM EST
Updated: Feb 17, 2012 7:10 PM ESTFor the first time, an Oklahoma college cheerleader meets the parents of the young woman who saved her life. She was on her death bed until one life changing moment.
Now, two Oklahoma families share an unbreakable bond.Anna Eaton Smith Thomas, a University of Central Oklahoma student, was just 26. Her mother says her daughter loved her husband, her family, God and had a real passion for writing. Thomas died unexpectedly on January 12, 2011 from a brain aneurysm.
A teenage girl from Claremore was dying too, waiting for liver donor.
On Friday, both families shared about loss, life and their new connection.
“I was an emotional wreck. They walked in and from that moment. I felt peace,” 19-year-old Northeastern Oklahoma A & M student, Breanna Fly said.
Fly has been thinking about Thomas ever since she woke up from surgery at Oklahoma Transplant Center in Oklahoma City. She met the family who raised a young woman who saved her life.
Thomas’s mom, America, and her step-dad David lost their little girl, but saved another mother from losing her daughter too.
“I can’t imagine what she went through,” said Fly’s mother, Bridget McCoy, as she couldn’t hold back tears, “I’m grateful and thankful, if it wasn’t for them and their choices and Anna’s choices. We wouldn’t be here. Life would’ve taken a different road.”
Fly was just 18-years-old when she got sick from something she ate, doctors told her it would pass that only one percent of the patients’ livers failed from what she had.
In a matter of days, she went from the bubbly high school cheerleader to the hospital with Hepatitus.
Doctors told the family Fly had just seven days to live on January 6, 2011. Thomas died on January 12 and her liver was donated just in time.
“It is such a pleasure to meet her and her family and know they’re really valuing and appreciating the gift my daughter Anna was able to give,” Thomas’ mother, America Farrell said. …
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