GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — For the first time, the Gift of Life Michigan will take part in the Art Van Santa Parade. Family members of people who have given the gift of life will be walking in the parade Saturday, including the mother of the first hand donor in Michigan.
Deb Wyant’s daughter, Shayna Sturtevant of Norton Shores, has a distinction that she never imagined or wanted for her — the first hand donor in the state. It started with an ear infection in 2016 and took a sudden, devastating turn.
“I took her into the emergency room and the ear infection had gone into her brain. They said that she had a stroke and was brain dead at that point,” Wyant said.
Sturtevant donated organs that saved the lives of three people after she died on Sept. 14 of a brain abscess at the age of 21.
When she was getting her driver’s license, Sturtevant had talked to her mother about wanting to be an organ donor. But Wyant says she was surprised when representatives from Gift of Life, the state’s federally designated organ and tissue donation program, asked her if she would be willing to donate her daughter’s hands.
“We were notified that there was a potential recipient out there. We knew that Shayna was going to be the perfect match for that person. We received authorization from Shayna’s family to move forward with that procedure,” said Alison Gillum, a Gift of Life West Michigan representative.
Even though Sturtevant was a registered organ donor, the donation of limbs require special permission, which her parents granted.
“It brings me so much peace to know that my daughter saved three families from this horrible grief that I’m going through. They have their loved one, their life and I hope that they’re all living it to the fullest,” Wyant said. “I know Shayna would want them to not have any guilt, because Shayna was a giving person. If I could have asked her, she would have said yes in a heartbeat.”