Organ donors honored at dedication of hospital's Tree of Life

The Austin American Statesman |
Key Gresham Blab, of Wimberley, places a leaf on the “Tree of Life” mural with the name of her son, Christopher Johannes Blab, an organ donor in 2010, that was honored along with other Central Texas donors by the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance’s dedication of Austin’s first “Tree of Life” during a ceremony held at the University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. (Austin American-Statesman / Rodolfo Gonzalez)
It was a morning of raw and contradictory emotions Tuesday for the families of some two dozen organ donors at University Medical Center Brackenridge: grief and joy, loss and hope improbably commingling.

The occasion was the dedication of Austin’s first â€" and just Texas’ third â€" Tree of Life in a hallway near the hospital’s intensive care unit to recognize donors who have saved lives. What now is a three-panel mural of a tree with the names of donors written on leaves will in a matter of weeks be replaced with an etched glass work of art with, so hospital officials and the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance hope, a growing number of leaves bearing names.

“It’s a recognition of gifts that people have given at a time of deep sorrow and grief,” said Pam Porter, whose 9-year old son, Scott, died of an aneurysm in 1998.

“I want to introduce you to my son,” Porter said, holding a photo of a smiling boy. “This is Scott. He didn’t like to take baths, he didn’t like to brush his teeth, he didn’t like to go to bed and he really didn’t like to get up.”

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