After Death, Helping to Prolong Life

New York Times | Kevin Sack
Photo: John P. LeMay, left, consulted with Kello Brown, 18, about recovering organs from his father, Curtis Kelly.  T.C. Worley for The New York Times

EDINA, Minn. â€" Just down the hallway, in Room 356, Curtis Kelly’s body lay covered to the chest by a white blanket, his torso rising and falling with the help of a ventilator. A neurologist at Fairview Southdale Hospital had declared him brain-dead nearly six hours earlier.

Mr. Kelly’s far-flung family â€" a son, three siblings, a sister-in-law, his girlfriend and the daughter of a former girlfriend â€" had gathered in a narrow conference room in the intensive care unit so that John P. LeMay could ask permission to recover his tissue and organs.

Checklist in hand, Mr. LeMay, a family support coordinator with LifeSource, the organ procurement organization in Minnesota, counted off the body parts that might restore the health of long-suffering patients. Because there was no record that Mr. Kelly, 46, had registered as a donor, he asked Mr. Kelly’s 18-year-old son, Kello Brown, to approve each request for these “anatomical gifts.” 
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