Watsonville children raise awareness on Facebook

The Salinas Californian | Allison Gatlin
Photo: Robert and Jazzlyn Carroll, 14 and 11, respectively, hold a sign asking for 1 million Facebook likes to raise awareness for organ donation and congenital heart defects. / Provided

Patrick Carroll’s blood may have traveled backwards, but he didn’t let that interfere with his role as a father.

According to his Watsonville family, the late Patrick was full of life.

“He was funny,” Jazzlyn Carroll, 11, said.

“He was always a glass-is-half-full kind of guy even though he couldn’t do a whole lot because he got tired really fast,” remembered Robert Carroll, 14.

“But he always found stuff for you to do,” reminded Samatha Carroll, their mother. “He had a great sense of humor.”

He could also be called inspiring.

When Patrick fell gravely ill in 2009 from the effects of a congenital heart defect that inverted the direction his blood flowed, he was placed on the list for a needed heart transplant. The day he received his new heart, March 6, 2012, he was slated to begin testing for a kidney transplant. Patrick succumbed a month after his heart transplant, but his children’s journey is far from over.
______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor TODAY
In California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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