Greenfield girl lives on through organ donations after accident
Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel | By Jan Uebelherr
Photo: This photo of Brittany at a soccer game was taken the week before she died on May 18.
Mel Mickey had faced this once before.
The words: "No hope." The sliver of time to make a decision.
Nineteen years ago it was his daughter, Colleen Mickey, who died in a car accident. Age 19. This time, it was his granddaughter, Brittany Barnstable, hit by a car while riding her bike. Age 15.
No hope, the doctors said.
He called his daughter, Michelle Barnstable, who was already racing back from a trip to Manitowoc, having heard her daughter was in an accident.
"It doesn't look very good," he told her. "Her brain damage is worse than Colleen's was."
Michelle's first intelligible words: "I want to donate all of Brittany's organs."
And so Brittany, like her aunt Colleen before her, became an organ donor, bringing life to eight people.
"No hope" became life.
'Very precious time'
It was a Saturday, May 18, and Brittany was heading east across a heavily traveled stretch of S. Sunny Slope Road in New Berlin. It's an area surrounded by subdivisions; Orchard Lane Elementary School is just to the south. A car driven by a 52-year-old woman struck her. The Waukesha County district attorney is reviewing the case.
Mel Mickey had faced this once before.
The words: "No hope." The sliver of time to make a decision.
Nineteen years ago it was his daughter, Colleen Mickey, who died in a car accident. Age 19. This time, it was his granddaughter, Brittany Barnstable, hit by a car while riding her bike. Age 15.
No hope, the doctors said.
He called his daughter, Michelle Barnstable, who was already racing back from a trip to Manitowoc, having heard her daughter was in an accident.
"It doesn't look very good," he told her. "Her brain damage is worse than Colleen's was."
Michelle's first intelligible words: "I want to donate all of Brittany's organs."
And so Brittany, like her aunt Colleen before her, became an organ donor, bringing life to eight people.
"No hope" became life.
'Very precious time'
It was a Saturday, May 18, and Brittany was heading east across a heavily traveled stretch of S. Sunny Slope Road in New Berlin. It's an area surrounded by subdivisions; Orchard Lane Elementary School is just to the south. A car driven by a 52-year-old woman struck her. The Waukesha County district attorney is reviewing the case.
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"You have the power to SAVE lives."
To register as a donor in California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net
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