8-Year-Old Aids Others After Death Youngster’s Donated Organs Transplanted To Three People

About a year before 8-year-old Michael Jordan Shea ran across the road for the last time, he had a prophetic discussion with his mother.

He was devastated over the recent death of his grandfather, so his mother showed her children her organ donor card. She told them it was a way to help make life continue.

“I want to do it. I want to give my heart away if I die,” Michael announced after two weeks of thought.

When he was hit by a car June 30 and died, his wish was carried out.

Now, a Yakima girl has his heart, a Seattle girl and a woman from southwest Washington share his kidneys and a Baltimore woman carries his liver.

“It was his wish and it was carried out, and he would have been proud,” said his mother, Eileen Shea.

Michael’s family sent letters and a photo of him to the donor recipients as a way to balance their sense of loss with hope for those he helped.

“I want them to know he’s a beautiful kid,” Eileen Shea said. “They’ve got some precious stuff inside of them.”

One recipient wrote back.

“I felt that to get a transplant was only a dream, and with so many others on the waiting list that it might never happen,” the woman wrote.

“Now my dream has come true, thanks to you and Michael. He will remain in my thoughts and prayers for the rest of my life.”

Michael’s last day was spent swimming in a pond with his sister Rory and a friend.

They sped off on their bikes, stopping near a highway overpass. The plan was to ambush some girls who had taken Michael’s clothes at the pond and teased him.

But as Michael bolted across the highway with a dirt bomb in hand, he was hit by a Colorado family.

“There wasn’t a thing he could do,” Eileen Shea said of the driver. “He did everything in his power to avoid him.”

The next day, his heart was flown from Montana to Seattle and transplanted in 4-year-old Paige Roberts. She would have died without the heart, and is recovering at home.

His kidneys went to an 11-year-old Seattle girl and a 46-year-old woman from southwest Washington, who are both doing well.

And a 56-year-old Baltimore woman who was in a coma received his liver. She, too, is doing well.

“He was the energy in my house,” explained Eileen Shea. “Rory is my quiet one who sits and writes all the time. Michael would race up and down the stairs. He flew like the wind and had a very free spirit.”