The family’s priest administered last rites to Katie, who was 14. The hospital gave her family a lock of her hair and her handprints. Katie’s mother, father, and younger brother, Max, gathered around her bed and said their goodbyes.
Then a nurse wheeled Katie’s body away for surgery. Her lungs were transplanted into a teenager who had to stop playing soccer because he had cystic fibrosis. Her liver went to a 3-year-old girl who loved to dance and paint.
Her pancreas and one kidney were given to a single father who needed a machine to do the work of his own failing kidneys for seven years. Her other kidney went to a 48-year-old woman. And her heart, the final donation, was transplanted into a 54-year-old woman with heart failure.
Next week, Katie will be honored in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., where an image of her face will appear on a float commemorating people who donated their organs. Katie’s parents will be sitting in the stands as the float passes by on Monday.
“We wanted to be part of making sure her legacy did live on,’’ said Laura Dempsey, events and media relations coordinator for New England Organ Bank.
Each year, the organization sponsors one floragraph - an image made entirely of flowers and other natural materials - on the Rose Parade float created by Donate Life, a nonprofit coalition of organ and tissue donation groups. Dempsey’s group looks for a donor with a compelling story.
This year, they were drawn to Katie.
Katie was walking home from a Westford soccer field with a friend when a car hit her as she began to cross Carlisle Road. She was taken by helicopter to Children’s Hospital but never regained consciousness.
Four patients who received organs from Katie responded well. But the woman who received her heart died two weeks later.
“So, all in all, Katie’s gift saved four people’s lives this summer,’’ Ed wrote later on the wall of a Facebook page dedicated to the memory of his daughter.
