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The gift of life

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On New Year’s Day, Irma Boyar — like many other people — watched the grand tradition of the 2009 Rose Parade play out on live TV from the comfort of her living room.
She saw the scenes of floral-filled floats, marching bands and the celebration associated with the annual event that revolves around the Rose Bowl college football game in Pasadena, Calif. — all joyful sights.
Then, the Donate Life float entry came into view and a bittersweet mix of pride and loss overcame Boyar because one of the thousands of rose blooms on that float represented her son, Carlos Ortiz Jr., 31, who died as a result of an early morning car accident in downtown Bakersfield May 7, 2006. Ortiz’s family chose to donate his organs.
The family of the recipient who received Carlos’ heart dedicated a bloom on the 2009 Donate Life float in Carlos’ memory. OneLegacy, a nonprofit organ and tissue recovery agency, arranged for the gesture. Boyar received a notice from OneLegacy that her son would be memorialized in the famous Southern California parade, along with a certificate and a rose pin.
“As I watched, I reached out and touched it (the image of the float on TV) and I cried,” she said. “I was grateful that the recipient had honored my son in this way.”
Through OneLegacy, donor families and recipients may correspond anonymously with each other, according to specified guidelines. To gain “peace of mind,” Ortiz’s twin sister, Carla Andrews, began to write to the recipients who received her brother’s kidneys, liver and heart.
Eventually, Andrews, along with Boyar and Ortiz’s other sister, Michelle Berumen, were able to meet the recipient of Carlos’ heart in December 2007.
“I was so glad to meet him. I felt in awe knowing that he/we helped. It proved to me that organ donation is life for others,” said Boyar in an earlier interview with MÁS.
Ortiz’s family learned that the 62-year-old man, who now has their son/brother’s heart, had been on the transplant list for quite some time and his health was failing rapidly.
After the transplant, the man was able to return to work and now enjoys a renewed life with his family, thankful for the ultimate gift he received from a young man from Bakersfield.
“That means a lot to us,” she said. “Just to know that Carlos, my son, lives on in someone who needed this gift and is appreciative of it.”
Boyar and her daughters continue their involvement with OneLegacy and tell others about their support of organ donation in hopes of spreading the good word — before a person’s family is faced with the decision in the midst of a tragedy.
“Really, I don’t think that people actually think about it until they are face to face with death — that’s why it is necessary to get this information out,” Boyar said. “I truthfully never thought about it. That day (that Carlos died), there were no questions, no discussions we — my daughters and I — just knew we had to do it. We knew Carlos would have wanted to help others this way.”
According to OrganDonor.gov, more than 95,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant. Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant. More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.
However, minorities are three times less likely than caucasians to sign up as donors with the Donate Life California Registry according to Bryan Stewart, a OneLegacy spokesman.
Boyar remains comforted by the fact that her son’s life — and his death — had such great meaning.
“I tell people how proud I am of my son just knowing that a little part of him lives on through the four people that he helped,” Boyar said. “Can you imagine four people out there still enjoying their lives when they were so sick before the gift was made?”
Boyar also said she’s proud that her son was honored for his gift of life at the 2009 Rose Parade and that he would have approved.
“Carlos would have made sure everyone watched and probably would be jumping around, pointing to one particular place saying, ‘That’s me, that’s me!’” she said.