By Mike Baird
Saturday, April 4, 2009

CORPUS CHRISTI — It was exactly one year Saturday since Louis Gonzalez made the most difficult decision of his life, he said.

On April 4, 2008, he was at the hospital because his 14-year-old daughter, Tiffani Rae Gonzalez, was shot in the head by her boyfriend.

“When I saw that lady with the organ transplant name tag coming toward me I knew Tiffani had died,” said Gonzalez, 42.

Gonzalez and his family members were among about 25 families of organ donors attending an appreciation luncheon hosted by the Southwest Transplant Alliance at the Solomon P. Ortiz International Center.

A year ago, all Gonzalez could think about when asked to donate her organs was his daughter organizing a carnival in their yard that raised $400 for diabetes, he said.

“She didn’t even know anybody with diabetes. She just did it because she did it,” Gonzalez said. “So it only seemed fitting to donate her organs since she was already giving to help others.”

His difficult choice helped save three lives.

“There is,” he said, “less hate now.”

The luncheon was the first of eight celebrations throughout Texas during National Donate Life Month, said Jim Cutler, director of the alliance, which serves more than a third of Texas.

This year, 67 families have donated organs, and there have been about 200 tissue donors, Cutler said.

“Our biggest problem is more people need transplants than we have organs being donated,” he said. “All of these families today have made this tough decision, but there’s such a powerful result.”

Elida Ibarra knows.

She agreed to donate her son’s organs two days before Christmas in 2006. Ibarra placed two portraits of her son Juan Sifuentes on the table in front of her during the luncheon.

“Juan was a good father and hard worker,” said his sister Lori Maldonado, 28. “It’s still very hard.”