Before Brittany Corbiere’s Grade 12 graduation, she wanted to go into nursing, which was in keeping with her “compassionate” nature, recalls her mother.
Sheri Corbiere, a mother to seven children including Brittany, said her oldest was always helping and caring for her younger siblings. “She was like a second mom,” she said.
Though Brittany died before her graduation ceremony and before she had a chance to recognize her vision of becoming a nurse, she saved people’s lives in another way – by donating several of her major organs, so eight other people could have a second chance at life.
“In a way, she’s living through them,” said Corbiere.
April 19 to 24 was National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, and a dinner was held to recognize Albertan organ donors. Corbiere was asked to speak, and shared her reflections on the gift that her daughter gave.
“You couldn’t get through it without waterworks,” she said, adding, however, that attending the annual dinner means connecting with people who know what it means to give a gift with such a weighty price. “Norm and I both find it comforting to talk to people that know the exact pain it was.”
Brittany was driving with a friend just after school on Oct. 9, 2010, on the Friday of the Thanksgiving long weekend, when her vehicle crashed just four miles from her home.
The 17-year-old Mallaig School student was rushed to hospital and flown to Edmonton in a coma, but with her head injuries and the resulting swelling, her family was soon confronted with the reality no parent wants to hear, that the daughter they knew was gone.
It’s a heartache that will carry on forever, says Corbiere.
“The pain’s never gone, you just learn to deal with it better . . . You’re always missing that heart of yours.”
But in the midst of their pain of losing their daughter and facing the difficult reality of taking her off life support, another choice they had to make was simple, said Corbiere, and that was the decision to donate her organs.
“We didn’t even have to think about it. There was no saving her,” she recalled. She said she and her husband realized that as a young, healthy girl, Brittany’s organs were capable of giving somebody else a second chance. “So why not try to help someone?”
She said she would hope that if her children were in the same need, someone would do the same for them, adding, “Do good for others, and hopefully, when your time comes, if you need the help, you get it.”
Brittany donated several major organs, for instance, with her lungs going to a 17-year-old with cystic fibrosis, who was close to death, and her liver going to a middle-aged-man whose family wrote to the Corbieres and shared with them the gratitude that their father could do things like horseback riding or 4-H with his kids, “all the things Norm and Briitany used to do together,” recalled Corbiere.
One woman had permanent kidney damage following her pregnancy, with her doctor telling her that she needed a transplant but that there was a one in a million chance that she would find a donor. Just one week after she heard the news, she heard she would be the recipient of a kidney donation from Brittany.
“It was like winning the lottery for her,” Corbiere said, adding that the woman, among other organ recipients, called Brittany their “hero.”
“It’s just nice to hear she made a difference after she passed away,” Corbiere said, adding that her family has always seen Brittany as a hero, but it touched them to know she was seen as a hero by others too. “It brings some peace knowing.”
Over 4,000 Canadians and more than 600 Albertans are waiting for a life saving organ transplant, while many more wait for life-enhancing tissue transplants. People can signify their intent to donate by registering online, talking to their family or friends, or indicating their wishes when they renew or apply for a driver’s license.
Even though the Corbieres decided to donate Brittany’s organs, they didn’t see until after they came home that she had signed her drivers’ license, indicating she wished to be an organ donor. It’s the kind of example that Corbiere says she and her husband want to follow.
“We hope to do something as wonderful as she did.”
