Mother of Marble Falls teen killed in accident receives solace through lives her daughter saved

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

MARBLE FALLS — Seven months ago, Julie Klammer faced the tragedy of losing her 15-year-old daughter, Mylie Ferguson, after a car accident. A few weeks ago, when she hugged Sandy Norwood, 70, there was a part of Mylie in that embrace.

THE PHONE CALL

On Jan. 20, Julie’s phone rang. The voice on the other line shattered her world. Your daughter has been in an accident, the voice told her.The mother wondered, “How could that be?” Mylie was supposed to be at a friend’s house, not riding around in somebody’s pick-up truck.

Before heading out the door for University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin, Julie grabbed a suitcase and filled it with some of Mylie’s clothes.

“I thought she’d be coming home with me,” Julie said. When she arrived at the hospital and saw her daughter, Julie knew Mylie wasn’t ever coming home again.

Or, so she thought.

SANDY’S STORY

About 90 miles to the south, Sandy lay in the hospital attached to a ventilator that was acting as her lungs. Three years before, Sandy underwent a complete lung transplant after a genetic disease roared into her life. The transplant was successful, and Sandy recovered. Typically, if a person’s transplant remains good after one year, they’re in the clear.

But after three years, Sandy’s body began rejecting the transplanted lungs. Her only hope was another transplant.

On Jan. 14, a Monday, Sandy’s daughter, Joyce Durst, noticed her mother didn’t look well. She suggested they leave Sandy’s Cedar Park home and drive to San Antonio to see the transplant specialist the next morning.

“Driving to San Antonio took a lot out of me,” Sandy said. “So we’d usually drive down the afternoon before, get a hotel and then go to the doctor the next morning.”

They agreed on the same plan.

When Joyce checked on her mother Tuesday morning, Sandra was unresponsive. The daughter called 9-1-1, and emergency crews took her mother to the hospital.

A triage doctor broke the bad news to mother and daughter. Sandy’s lungs were failing. If she wanted to live, she had to go on a ventilator.

“But if I went on the ventilator, I would come off the (organ donation) waiting list,” Sandy said. “Generally, it’s harder for somebody on a ventilator to recover from a transplant.”

Except Sandy wasn’t just “somebody.” Her daughter called the transplant physician, who told Sandy to get on the ventilator and he would be on his way.

As expected though, Sandy’s name was scratched from the list. Thanks to a good transplant review team, one that knew Sandy’s doggedness and stubbornness, the members unanimously voted 24 hours later to put her back on the list.

And then, the wait resumed.

MYLIE’S LEGACY

Mylie died Jan. 23. Nothing can truly comfort a parent when a child dies. But before Mylie passed away, Julie and her ex-husband and Mylie’s father, Todd Ferguson, were walking up some stairs. He mentioned somebody had approached him about donating Mylie’s organs.

“I had never thought of that,” Julie said. “But when Todd told me that, it was like this weight just lifted. We had to do it.”

So Mylie’s parents agreed to donate their child’s organs and other tissues.

Back in San Antonio, as Mylie’s family and friends grieved, another family celebrated.

Mylie’s lungs were a perfect match for Sandy. On Jan. 24, Sandy underwent her second lung transplant.

Julie wasn’t aware of Sandy’s life as she sat in the Marble Falls High School auditorium Jan. 26 for her daughter’s memorial ceremony. She grieved over the loss of her daughter. The teenager had so much for which to live. So many people’s lives to touch.

During the service, six of Mylie’s classmates shared stories about the teenager and how her life impacted theirs.

“I never realized, until those six girls stood up there, how much Mylie meant to everybody,” Julie said. “She really had made a difference in people’s lives.”

But Mylie’s impact wasn’t over. In some ways, it was just beginning.

SANDY AND JULIE

As part of the transplant process, the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance maintains a high degree of confidentiality on donors and recipients. But they do give donor families and recipients a way to contact each other, if they want to.

“As soon as I got home, I wrote a thank-you letter to my donor family,” Sandy said. The letter went to TOSA, where the staff forwarded it to Mylie’s family. Without identifying information, Sandy knew nothing about her donor other than she was female.

She didn’t even know to whom in her donor’s family she’s writing.

Julie wrote a letter as well.

At one point, TOSA staff asked Julie if she would ever meet her daughter’s lungs recipient if she got the chance. Julie jumped at the opportunity.

Sandy agreed as well.

The two set a date and time, Saturday, Aug. 17, around noon.

“I really wasn’t sure what to expect,” Sandy said. “You know that this person you’re about to meet lost somebody they loved.”

The two met on a sunny, summer day. They spent about four hours sharing stories, talking about Mylie, learning about each other and drying a few tears.

SIX LIVES SAVED

Mylie’s heart beats in the chest of 10-year-old boy who is in full recovery. Her right kidney went to another 10-year-old boy. Her left kidney and a part of her liver went to a 55-year-old man. Another part of her liver went to a 53-year-old woman.

And doctors transplanted Mylie’s pancreas into a 28-year-old Indiana volunteer firefighter. The transplant would allow the man to continue working toward becoming an EMT.

Six people directly benefitted from Mylie’s organs. But her impact doesn’t stop there. Sandy explained that Mylie’s other tissue could help between 100 and 150 other people.

And then, there are Mylie’s corneas. If transplanted, one cornea will go to one person and the other to a second, meaning two people have the chance to see again.

Sandy understands she is alive because somebody else died. She honors Mylie and her first donor by living every day to the fullest.

Each day Sandy gets up, she makes the decision to be happy as a way to honor Mylie.

With Julie’s and Sandy’s newfound friendship comes another way to honor Mylie. They are planning to team up to promote organ donation.

“Can you imagine how much effect having the mother of the donor there and the person who got (the daughter’s) lungs would have on people,” Julie said. “I really think that’s something we’re going to do.”

While the joy of knowing her daughter’s organs and tissues have benefited the lives of numerous other people, Julie misses Mylie. Her house isn’t quite the same without the bubbly, goofy teenage girl.

While Julie feels a void in her house, she knows her daughter lives on — both spiritually and, in some ways, physically.

She smiled.

“I got to hug the woman who is breathing with Mylie’s lungs,” Julie said. “She may not not be with me, but her heart is still beating; her lungs are still breathing.”

Go to www.txorgansharing.org for more information on organ and tissue donation.

daniel@thepicayune.com