Heart of a hero

On June 22, 2004, Anita Erwin looked hopelessly at her physically shattered 17-year-old son, Michael Williams. The North Carolina teenager was in the Intensive Care Unit at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte after suffering a host of injuries in a car accident the day before: a fractured skull, pelvis, clavicle, ribs and eye socket, a ruptured spleen and a lacerated liver. Worst of all was the injury to his brain, which had been so badly battered it could no longer tell his collapsed lungs to breathe.When the neurosurgeon said it was time to discuss organ donation, “it was almost a relief,” recalls Anita, 40, a disease management specialist from Kannapolis, N.C. As a registered nurse, Anita knew that Michael, a swimming and gymnastics star who loved kids and was a dedicated volunteer for his church and the local fire department, couldn’t survive.”I needed an answer, a direction to go in.” Fulfilling Michael’s wish to be an organ donor allowed Anita to feel that she could perform one last act on behalf of her son: “I was not going to let Michael go without honoring his request.”Little did she know that by authorizing the recovery of Michael’s organs, she would forge an unusual friendship that would celebrate her son’s life and light up the darkest chapter in her own.

A Priceless Gift

After Michael died, Anita received a letter informing her that one person had been implanted with his heart, one with his kidney and one with a portion of his liver. “I was just ecstatic that life could continue,” Anita recalls. Then, three weeks later, the daughter of a woman Anita’s father was dating said that she knew who had gotten Michael’s heart: She had once worked in a factory with the man’s wife. The revelation, says Anita, “was like dangling a carrot in front of a horse. This man possibly has my son’s heart! The heart that used to beat in my body, too!”

Meanwhile, David Harris of Marion, N.C., was marveling that he could now plan a future. Only a month earlier, the disabled construction worker, no longer able to work, was dying from an inherited heart defect called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. “I was weak, weak, weak,” says David, now 48. “Every time I put my shoes on I thought, Will I take these off at the end of the day or will someone else?” He had every reason to wonder. In 1983, his father, Fred, had died of the same disease at age 57; five years later, his brother, Terry, died at 27. Just a year earlier, David’s only son, Josh, despite having been implanted with a pacemaker, died suddenly at 22.

In August, the mutual friend of the two families put Anita’s dad, Paul Capps, on the phone with David. Paul suggested that Anita might want to meet him. “When she’s ready, I’m ready,” said David. Anita called in January.

David felt awkward telling Anita how good he now felt with her son’s heart inside him: He bicycled 25 miles a night and walked everywhere, dropping 30 lbs. Mindful of his gift, he shunned alcohol and cigarettes. “I was glad to hear he was taking care of it,” says Anita, smiling. “I would have been real mad at him if he wasn’t!”

One day in September 2005, David happened to be near the hospital where Anita worked and dropped by to visit. “We hugged and we cried,” he recalls. “I thanked her, but I could thank her a million times and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

Legacy of Hope

Two months later, on National Donor Sabbath, David went with Anita to her church, the First Reformed Church in Landis, N.C., to help her give a presentation about the importance of organ donation. The two have since become good friends and travel together to promote organ donation awareness.

“Knowing David has been absolutely wonderful for us,” says Anita. “He has a lot of love and compassion and knows what it’s like to suffer and to lose a son. We’re family members now.” That they are — over Thanksgiving, David, his wife, Debra, and daughter, Latisha Thomas, 29, stayed with Anita, her husband, Mike Erwin, and Anita’s daughter, Emily Williams, 18.

David notes Michael had won trophies for swimming and gymnastics, but his achievements did not end with his death: “Michael saved three lives!” he exclaims. “If there’s such a thing as a hero, Michael is a hero.”