News Stories
| 2/16/10 | His Life Goes On Organ donation first of this year locally |
Corpus Christi Caller Times February 16, 2010 By Elaine Marsilio
CORPUS CHRISTI — Bobby Najar Jr. made sure to call his mom every day to see how she was doing.
The two were close. He was her only son.
The 61-year-old always brought his mother, Odilia, flowers on Valentine’s Day.
This year she spent Valentine’s Day in her son’s hospital room after Najar Jr. was pronounced brain-dead. He was punched unconscious Feb. 5 and his brain swelled, his family said.
“This took away a part of my life,” Najar’s mother said.
But she believes her son will live on.
Najar Jr. of Kingsville was on a ventilator Monday at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial to keep his organs alive. At the same time, his family was in front of the hospital honoring him during a flag-raising ceremony.
The ceremony marks the hospital’s first organ donation this year, kicking off a program Monday allowing a donor’s family to raise a flag in memory of their loved one.
The flag, to be flown until Najar Jr.’s body leaves the hospital, promotes organ donation at a time when more than 104,000 patients are on a national waiting list, said Sophie Longoria, regional client services coordinator for Southwest Transplant Alliance. About 7,000 of those 104,000 patients are Texans.
The alliance is a nonprofit organ and tissue donor program in many Texas hospitals.
Najar’s family decided to donate his organs after hospital staff asked them to consider it, Najar’s son-in-law Rudy Cavazos said.
Cavazos said he hopes whoever receives the organs has a successful, prosperous life.
“They are getting a second chance,” he said.
Corpus Christi police arrested Arnold Soto, 25, on suspicion of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in connection with the Feb. 5 incident. Soto was released Feb. 5 from Nueces County Jail on $25,000 bail. Police are investigating the Feb. 5 incident.
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