A Virginia woman who four-and-one-half years ago donated one of her own kidneys to her then 15-year-old son made the agonizing decision to donate his organs to others recently after the youth was tragically killed in a fight with a co-worker.

Travis Monroe Abbitt, 20, of South Boston, VA, sustained head injuries when he was thrown to the pavement during the fight behind a local restaurant.

At Duke University Hospital, the youth's mother, Peggy Abbitt, who had donated one of her kidneys to her son in January 1997, said "my first question after being told that he would not survive was: "Could he be an organ donor?"

"I will tell you, it was difficult," Mrs. Abbitt told Transplant Week. "We waited all day on Tuesday for the brain death determination. It did not happen until Wednesday at 1:15 p.m.

"Having been on the other side of the issue, it was so very important to us for this to take place so we stuck it out," she said. "I could, however, understand why others might not."

Ultimately, the youth's heart and lungs went to a transplant recipient at the University of North Carolina Hospital -- where his own kidney transplant had taken place four years earlier -- and his pancreas and liver went to two transplant recipients at Duke.

"I had hoped his kidney could be used for research to maybe learn about what the (immunosuppressive) meds do to the kidney or ever better, more about his kidney disease as it had recurred in his transplant. But they could not find a research facility for it," Mrs. Abbitt added.

Mrs. Abbitt has expressed interest in hearing of other transplant recipients who have subsequently become organ donors upon their own deaths.

Even rarer, we suspect, is an instance of a living-donor, who gave an organ to a child, subsequently donating that child's organs to others upon his/her death.

If others have instances that they would like to share, please send to editor@transplantweek.org

Other sources: Peggy Abbitt