GIFT SAVES FIVE FOLKS
After Madeline Stroup’s death, the 23-year-old’s heart, liver and kidneys, and an islet cell transplant, were used by others
It was last Friday when Dean and Tara Stroup received a letter that made them break down into tears.
The parents of four were on their way to enlarge photos of their daughter Madeline, who had recently died in hospital after a July 26 car crash that also claimed the life of her boyfriend, Hayden Turcotte, when they opened and started to read the letter.
“On behalf of B.C. Transplant, we would like to offer condolences on the recent death of your daughter,” it began.
“Please take consolation in the knowledge that five people are alive today because of this gift of life.”
Even if it’s hard, think about how it would feel if you could give the gift of life.” Tara Stroup
Madeline was an organ donor, the letter states. And after the 23-year-old’s death, her heart went to someone with heart failure. Her liver went to another with liver failure. Her kidneys went to two in need. And another person with pancreas insufficiency received an islet cell transplant because of her generosity.
“We just started crying,” Tara said. “It was just very, very touching.”
Tara said she and Dean wanted to let the recipients know what kind of a person their daughter was.
“She was really kind, thoughtful, so easy going,” Tara said. “She just kind of had this way with older people. It was really unusual. She just bonded well and they felt a kinship toward her. Maddy was like an old soul … And yet she was silly. She loved to giggle and laugh.”
Maddy had three siblings and six nieces and nephews, all of whom she was close with. “She was just there for them. She knew when somebody needed her.”
Tara encouraged everyone to have conversations with their loved ones about being an organ donor.
“Even if it’s hard, think about how it would feel if you could give the gift of life. Nobody wants a trauma like this, least of all us. But if it gave a life or helped somebody, you need to have the conversation,” she said.
There are more than 1.4-million B.C. residents who have registered a decision on B.C. Transplant’s organ donor registry, according to the agency. Those unsure if they have registered can check online on the agency’s site.
To be an organ donor, you must be in a critical-care unit on a breathing machine, with no hope of recovery, according to B.C. Transplant.
Less than one per cent of B.C. deaths occur in a way that allows someone to give their organs, according to the agency. The agency recommends everyone register their decision for donation, which can be done online or by mail.
The car crash that killed the young couple happened in the Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford, south of Highway 1. The area is known to locals as a “speedway,” and police data show hundreds of collisions and at least seven deaths in the prairie since 2010.
Dean said he wants to see roundabouts installed in intersections in the area, including in the one where his daughter was fatally injured.
“Fix it. If something happens at that intersection now, and somebody else dies, somebody’s kid … I wouldn’t forgive myself,” he said. “I’m not going to let this go.”
Dean said Henry Braun, the Mayor of Abbotsford was letting the people down by not fixing intersections in the area. A spokeswoman at the City of Abbotsford said the mayor was on vacation outside of cell range and could not be reached for comment Monday.
The city previously issued a statement that it was “not currently aware of an increase in incidents in the Sumas Prairie area,” but that an analysis of rural roads was underway as part of the city’s road safety strategy.
A Go Fund Me page has been created for the family and has so far raised more than $45,000. Dean and Tara said they would like to direct funds raised to the creation of a park in Maddy and Turcotte’s honour.
Tara said that as she was writing an obituary for Maddy, she came to understand something that had stuck with her for years.
“When she was born, she looked at me from the incubator, and she gave me a look. It has always stuck with me,” she said.
“I always felt it meant something. And I guess I just feel like now I know what it was. That she wasn’t going to be here for long.”