9-year-old Utahn thriving thanks to two families who chose organ donation

FOX 13 | Hope Woodside

Kaidence Stephenson In 2007

FARMINGTON, Utah -- Since November of 2014, Fox 13 has partnered with Intermountain Donor Services to encourage you to become an organ donor by sharing the stories of those who have donated or received a life-saving Gift of Hope.

These days Kaidence Stephenson looks like any other 9-year-old child, but the Farmington girl's journey to reach that point has been a complicated one.

When she was 5 years old, a virus affected her heart and it didn’t recover. Doctors installed an artificial heart to bridge the gap until she could receive a heart transplant.

The transplant was done in December of 2007 using the heart from a boy named Devohn, and the two families formed a close bond afterward, even vacationing together. But four years after the transplant, Kaidence developed coronary artery disease. Her mother, Shauntelle, was devastated.

“How do I tell Devohn's family? Because I didn’t want it to feel like they were losing him again,” Stephenson said of that time. Continue reading

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from Donate Life Organ and Tissue Donation Blog℠ http://ift.tt/2f3rQuh