One North Texas family is helping others through one of the most difficult decisions they'll ever have to make. They're this week's KRLD Difference Makers.
It was spring break 2010 when a tragedy struck the Storch family while on a ski trip to Colorado.
"It was the very last run on our first day that Taylor got going a little too fast and slid off into the trees and hit a tree," said Taylor's mom, Tara Storch. "She was doing everything right. She was a great athlete. She was wearing a helmet. It was an accident. She was careflighted to Grand Junction, Colorado where we were met with a big group of doctors who quickly let us know that our sweet girl was not going to survive."
That's when the family was approached about organ donation. A nurse approached the family to let them know that Taylor was a perfect candidate for organ donation and asked if the family would consider it.
"We had never talked about organ donation in our family, not even once. But we knew out of all the decisions we were making that that was the easiest one to answer," Tara said. "We said yes."
Taylor saved and improved the lives of 5 people with the gift of her heart, both kidneys, her liver, pancreas and she gave sight with her corneas.
From that came the Taylor's Gift Foundation, created to share about the importance of organ donation and how it gives others a second chance at life.
But more than 10 years later, the foundation is addressing a problem most donor families face - a lack of dedicated emotional support as they face the grief of losing a loved one and the gratitude that their loved one is saving or helping others. The foundation launched the Kindred Hearts Program which will offer support groups led by trained volunteers and individual support through Caring Guides to assist donor families in navigating their grief process for as long as they need it at no cost to them. The program provides donor families with the opportunity to connect with a network of people who have experienced similar emotional pain and trauma.
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"When people think of organ donation, many times they think of death. But organ donation is all about life. That's what it's about," Tara said.
We're proud to call Tara Storch and the Taylor's Gift Foundation this week's KRLD Difference Makers.
April is National Donate Life Month.
If you know someone making a difference in the community, send us an email at differencemaker@krld.com.
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