Homicide victim’s organs donated to four people

After Simon Grant’s organs were donated, his widow, Cora Laich, said she looked forward to the day she might get a letter from one of the recipients.

Grant, 64, died on April 17 of injuries he sustained during a robbery at his La Ronge restaurant, Louisiana’s Bar-B-Que, on April 15.

After he was airlifted to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, doctors didn’t give him much hope of surviving. His family donated his lungs, liver, kidneys and pancreas islets.

Earlier this month, Laich received a letter from the Saskatchewan Transplant Program thanking her family for the decision.

“It brought tears to my eyes. I really teared up. It just made Simon’s organ donation seem so much more real. It was like, people actually have his organs in their body and their lives are benefiting from him,” Laich said via telephone on Thursday.

The letter said the person who received Grant’s lungs is recovering “well” in hospital and is “in ‘awe’ of the gift.” The recipient of his liver is recovering, and the two people who received each of his kidneys are doing well and are now dialysis-free.

“One of the recipients was highly sensitized (meaning that he or she was almost impossible to match to a donor kidney due to antibodies in the blood), therefore this may have been that individual’s one chance to receive a kidney,” the letter said.

The program was unable to place his heart and the islet cells from his pancreas could not be transplanted.

Laich has not received a letter directly from the recipients yet, but a representative from the transplant program let her know recipients are encouraged to write letters six to eight weeks after their operation.

Grant believed in donating his organs and having his body be used to help others after his death, and he spoke about it in life, Laich said.

She wasn’t sure she believed in the process before he died, but after she learned more about it when her family went through it, she was amazed at how well the transplant team worked with her family, she added.

According to the program, in 2016, organs were donated by 14 deceased people and eight living people in Saskatchewan; 29 kidney transplants were performed. In 2015, organs were donated from 10 deceased people and three living people; 14 kidney transplants were done.

“I just encourage people to find out more about it because it really... It helps me cope, knowing the tragedy of Simon’s death has brought some goodness. That’s a healing process for me as well,” Laich said.

“If you’re a victim of a tragedy, I think it brings you some healing and some hope, knowing that your loved one will live on in others.”

Three people are charged with second-degree murder in connection with Grant’s death. A fourth is charged with accessory to murder after the fact.

Laich said healing has been happening one day at a time, but she found she’s stronger than she thought she would be. She and her daughter Candice have received support and kind words from members of the community, she said.

“Sometimes people question why Simon and I chose La Ronge for a home and I really realized in the past few weeks that the people are what make our communities. They have been such a great support, sending me messages, telling me stories, just saying they’re praying for me and bringing food over, offering to do errands for me, just offering to do anything in any way they can.”