By COLLEEN McCAIN NELSON / The Dallas Morning News
06:42 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 27, 2005

'We were just her voice,' says dad of displaced teen's organ donation

As members of the Garber family prepared to move from Louisiana to a Houston
suburb, misfortune seemed to surround them.

Hurricane Katrina damaged their home in Denham Springs, La. And Hurricane Rita appeared to be headed toward their new home in Richmond, Texas.

But as Debi Garber and two of her children shuttled between storms and houses, it was the highway - not a hurricane - that devastated them. Mrs. Garber never saw the tow truck that crossed the median and barreled into their SUV.

Her daughter, 17-year-old Sarah, suffered massive head injuries in the accident near Beaumont. The high school senior, who loved basketball and wanted to open a hair salon, never regained consciousness.

With his wife and son seriously injured in the crash and another son stationed in Iraq, Jay Garber didn't have anyone to lean on when doctors told him Thursday that Sarah was brain dead. But Mr. Garber, who was in California on a business trip when the accident happened, was convinced that some good could come from his heartbreak.

With his family's blessing, Mr. Garber decided to donate Sarah's organs.

"She was always giving," he said of his daughter. "I knew that this is something that she would want to do."

When Sarah found a wallet filled with $500 in cash, she returned the money, refused a reward and even offered to help the elderly owner with tasks around the house, Mr. Garber said.

And once, after carefully saving her money to buy a CD, Sarah abandoned her plan on the way to the music store. When she encountered a homeless man standing in the rain, she offered him her savings. "She said, 'He needed the money more than I needed the CD,' " Mr. Garber recalled.

Sarah's father marveled at her kind heart. Officials at the Southwest Transplant Alliance said they were likewise amazed by the Garbers' generous gesture.

"For that family to have the clarity of mind to make this decision in the midst of everything they were dealing with - that was a lot to go through all at once," said Pam Silvestri, public affairs director for the alliance.

"Yet they still found a way to help other people."

As Hurricane Rita approached the Texas coast, Sarah was flown late Thursday from Beaumont to Baylor University Medical Center. Her older brother, Nicholas, arrived from Iraq to say goodbye only minutes before she was transported to Dallas.

Sarah's heart has helped a 64-year-old woman, Ms. Silvestri said. A 53-year-old man has her liver. And 13- and 14-year-old girls received her kidneys. Sarah's corneas and other tissue also will be transplanted.

As he makes arrangements to bury his only daughter and as his wife and 13-year-old son, John, begin the long road to recovery, Mr. Garber said he takes solace in knowing that their sorrow could bring others joy.

"I'm the one who gave the go-ahead," he said. "But Sarah would have done it if she could have spoken. We were just her voice."