Organ Donation Focus Good For Local Nonprofit
COLLEYVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) - It's been a year and half and coping with her son's death hasn't gotten any easier for Myra Sinunu. When she talks about Brad her face immediately lights up.
"It's been difficult but Bradley's memory stays he had left a beautiful footprint," says Myra from Colleyville.
In the last few years of his life Brad Stoner was in and out of the hospital.
Stoner, 20, needed a new heart and kidneys but he never got them. "He waited and waited and never got his organ donation and it was shame," says his father Steve Sinunu "He was such a great kid and had so much to offer the world and yet his prayers went unanswered."
A few weeks after his death Brad's family formed a nonprofit called the Bradpack foundation which encourages people to become organ donors.
They admit recruiting is hard. But it may not be for Facebook. "It's the difference between someone living a full life and someone being in heaven like Bradley is," says Steve.
Facebook is now allowing users to enroll as donors, if they aren't already and those who are can add their donor status to their timelines.
Mark Zuckerberg is taking on an initiative to increase organ donations. "It could mean a donor would be available," says Debbi Buttermore from Rockwall "I'm excited about that. I really do think it would make a difference."
Buttermore hopes her chances of getting a new kidney is greater now thanks to the millions Facebook users. "After three years you get sort of down when nothing happens," says Buttermore.
Buttermore is just one of more than 2,000 North Texans waiting for a transplant. In Texas right now two-and-a-half million people are registered organ donors.
In the Dallas region last year, 1,000 transplants were completed from the organs provided by 230 donors. "Every day in the United States 20 out of 113 thousand people dye waiting for an organ transplant they never get," explains Jim Cutler with Southwest Transplant Alliance "Hopefully it means we can eliminate people dying waiting - we can shorten waiting times."
As for Brad's family they had hoped to find a donor for their son. He was one, "Two people have the gift of sight now," says Steve Sinunu "That was his generous gift!"
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