Teen's organ donation gives stranger a second chance at life

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- According to the official organ donor website, more than 100 thousand people are currently on the national transplant waiting list.

A St. Joseph County mother used unimaginable pain and loss to give new life to someone her family never met before.

"It's a chance to give others a second chance at life," said Pam Soni, Teddy Soni's mother.

It was the news no parent ever hopes to get.

Pam Soni's 18-year-old son Teddy was involved in an automobile accident, and the outlook for him looked bleak.

"He survived four days in the ICU, and it was determined at some point that he was brain dead, and they asked us if he was a donor, I said no but I knew his nature and I knew his personality, and I knew he would want to help people. That's when the Indiana Donor Network liaison showed me a copy of his driver's license and Teddy had made himself a donor at the age of 16 so we did honor that," said Pam Soni.

Meanwhile, down in Kokomo, Kevin Sommers' lungs were headed down a grim path.

Doctors told him his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had reached a point where one lung was fully dead, another one not far behind, all this as Sommers was already on full time oxygen.

But after being on the donor list for a mere 48 hours, Kevin got the call he had been hoping for.

He was going to be getting a new set of lungs, thanks to Teddy Soni.

"I was excited, I wasn't nervous at all, I was elated that I was going to be saved, and I was going to have a new set of lungs and I was going to be able to continue living, and the only thing that I hated was that somebody had to die for me to live," said Kevin Sommers, lung transplant recipient.

Teddy's lungs are helping give Kevin a new lease on life.

Kevin and Pam have done public speaking engagements, including Monday afternoon at Penn High School, to stress the importance to being an organ donor on teens and young adults.

"Teddy breathes through me every day, he's me, and Teddy and I have so much in common, it's really crazy. We both like cooking, we both like grilling, we like gardening, we like all that kind of stuff. He was just an amazing young man, and I'm just honored to be able to have his lungs"

Pam works as an emergency room nurse at Saint Joseph Medical in Mishawaka.

She says the connection she has with Kevin now provides her with what she referred to as "the closest she will be to Teddy, on this side of heaven."

"One person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and can impact up to 75 through tissue donation, and you're never too old and you're never too young to donate and you never know what life somebody can have impacted through somebody else's gift," said Soni.

When asked what she thought Teddy would say if he could see the good his organs have done for others, Pam said, "I know he would have the biggest wide grin on his face, from ear to ear, smiling down from heaven."