Nurse, advocate for organ donation, finds purpose at Southwest Transplant Alliance

Tiffany McKnight Smith has long been an advocate for organ donation and she has personal experience with the subject.

She lost her first husband, Tim McKnight, a pilot, after he died from injuries sustained in a plane crash in January 1994 in Tulsa, Okla. She made the life-changing decision to donate his organs.

“He was the type of person that loved life. Every time he got in a plane, he’d be like, ‘Look at God’s work.’ It was just a different spirit when we got up there in the plane. He loved life and he was never depressed. He’d had dreams he was going to die flying. We had many conversations about that for the six months prior to the crash, but it was never depressing. He wasn’t afraid. He was a Christian. He was saved,” Smith said.

The week before the crash, the husband and wife had a conversation about organ donation and Tim indicated he would want to donate.

“We had so many conversations about things, it was like God prepared us,” Smith said. “The weekend before he died,wwdw he said, ‘Tiffany, if something ever happens, no matter what it is, never ask God why because God will show you why,” she said.

After the crash, when Tim was in the hospital, a nurse talked to Tiffany about Tim’s injuries and her choices concerning organ donation.

“He let me talk about Tim. He was who made a difference to me. I remember sitting at Tim’s bedside and talking about everything. If there was such a thing as a brain transplant, I would have been sitting there begging for that. It hit me then there were loved ones at a bedside doing the same thing I was- begging for a miracle. There’s not a brain transplant. I couldn’t save Tim but he could save other people. That’s what helped me make the decision to donate,” she said.

Tim’s kidneys, liver and heart valve were donated. The experience changed the course of Tiffany’s life in many ways. She’d once had plans to go to medical school to become a doctor, but after losing Tim her path took a different direction.

“When I left the hospital, I was going through the grief of everything and it hit me I didn’t want to be a doctor. In my eyes, I’d realized it was the nurse at the bedside that really made a difference in families’ and patients’ lives,” she said. “I wanted to be a nurse and someone who works with organ donation. I wanted to make sure I took care of families

and I knew this is something that could give purpose out of a bad situation.”

Fulfilling that dream, she recently took a full-time position with Southwest Transplant Alliance where she educates hospital employees about organ donation and works with families as they are faced with the choice to donate a loved one’s organs or not. Southwest Transplant Alliance is an organ procurement organization based in Dallas, Texas that serves several regions of Texas including Northeast Texas.

She also works part time as a nurse at CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System on the progressive care unit.

Before taking a full-time job with Southwest Transplant Alliance, Tiffany worked for them part-time as an organ recovery associate for 14 1/2 years. Her experience helped her to empathize with families as they faced impossible choices.

“I usually do let them know that I may not know exactly what they’re going through, every situation is different, but I do let them know I’m a donor family. I do understand the impact and the questions. … Donating gives a sense of purpose. In a moment of tragedy, that’s not what they’re looking for. They want their loved one to be OK, but in time it gives them comfort,” she said. “If we get a potential referral for a patient that could possibly be an organ donor, we come in and we can help families by educating them, giving them information and helping them through the end-of-life process. Even if they say no, we still work with families through the grief process.”

“That’s part of the reason I do what I do. I want to be there for families, comfort them and give them the correct information and maybe things I didn’t get that I felt like I needed. Also just knowing you’re saving lives, when you finally come out of that grief, whether or not you meet those recipients in the future, just knowing something good came out of a tragic situation can help,” Tiffany said.

There are more than 114,000 people waiting for an organ transplant in the United States and every 10 minutes another person is added to the list.

The need is great, making education about organ donation extremely important.

It’s important for people to know that Arkansas and Texas are both consent states, meaning first-person authorization either on their driver’s license or through a state donor consent website is all it takes to become a donor.

“If someone has made the request to give the gift of life and could potentially be an organ donor, they should mention it to their families,” Smith said.

Her life has come full circle and she doesn’t question the path that brought her to this place.

She believes Tim was right when he told her not to ask God why.

In 1996, Tiffany married Chad Smith of Fouke, Ark. and they had two children.

“I’m blessed that I met Chad. We’ve been married almost 23 years and have two wonderful children now, Trevor and Sydnie. I feel God blessed me all the way around. Chad and the kids have always supported my passion for nursing and organ donation,” Tiffany said. “God led me all the way back to where I am now. … My purpose is being fulfilled. Here it is 25 years later and I’m exactly where I said I wanted to be after Tim died. God has blessed me with this position. … God does always have a plan even when we don’t see it in the midst of tragedy.”

Facts about organ donation from STA:

One organ donor has the potential to save eight lives and tissue donation can save or enhance more than 75 lives.

Organs that can be donated include: heart, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, liver and intestines. Tissue that can be donated includes: corneas, skin, tendons, bone, nerves and heart valves.

People of all ages, backgrounds and medical histories can sign up to be organ and tissue donors. Register your decision to be an organ and tissue donor at DonateLifeTexas. org, and share your decision with your family and friends.

Southwest Transplant Alliance (STA) is a nonprofit organ procurement organization (OPO). For more than 40 years, STA has been saving lives by recovering donated organs for transplantation. Recently, STA began recovering eyes and tissue to improve lives. STA is among the largest of 58 federally designated OPO’s and is ranked among the highest in the nation for the most number of organs transplanted.

STA has facilitated more than 24,000 organs for recovery and enhanced the lives of tens of thousands of people.

STA serves 10 transplant centers and more than 280 hospitals in its service area. Their professional staff is available around-the-clock to evaluate, manage, recover, preserve, allocate and transport organs and tissue for transplantation. Additionally, STA provides hundreds of community education programs to schools, civic groups and businesses each year.

Sign up to be an organ donor in Texas at donatelifetexas.org/register/ or in Arkansas at arora.org or ORGANIZE. org, a national database that holds your registration through your lifetime, regardless of where a person moves to.