PHOTOSGranger Smith's Wife Amber Reveals Their Late Son River's Organs Saved Two Lives
July 15 2019, Updated 1:12 p.m. ET
During their last few moments with their three-year-old son River, who tragically drowned on June 6, Granger and Amber Smith still thought of others. The mother-of-three took to social media on Saturday, July 13 to share that their son "saved" two lives from his donated organs.
Shortly after Granger, 39, and Amber, 37, announced the heartbreaking death of their son, they revealed that they would be donating his organs.
"I’ve always known I wanted to be a donor if anything were to ever happen to me," Amber wrote on July 13 via Instagram. "I just felt that if I had viable organs, why would I go into the ground with them? My spirit would be in Heaven, so why not save a life if I could?"
"Never in a million years did I think I would be making that decision for my baby," she continued.
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"When 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery (yes 0, not 10 or 1%, 0) after shock and reality set in, I thought, how can we bury our sweet baby and not try to help others?" she explained.
"His body is perfect, his organs are perfect, we had to do something. There are so many people waiting for an organ to save their lives," Amber said. "The doctors said donation was quite a process. We would have to search for viable recipients and it could take days."
"We got the letter that our tiny, red-headed hero gave life to 2 adults. A 49 year old woman and a 53 year old man," she added. "I cried when we opened it. Cried out of sadness & cried out of love. I’m so proud to be River’s mama and I’m so grateful to God that he gave him to us for those incredible 3 years."
"I pray these two recipients live healthy, joy filled, full throttle lives just like Riv. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest, decisions we’ve ever made," Amber concluded.
