Mum who lost her little girl, 4, to diabetes gains whole new family after her daughter’s liver saved a young boy’s life
A WOMAN who tragically lost her little girl to juvenile diabetes has told how she gained a whole new family after her daughter’s liver saved another young boy’s life.
Micki Parker’s second born, Addison – known as Addie, died at just four years old after suffering brain damage brought on by her previously undiagnosed condition.
But the little girl lives on after her parents made the brave decision to donate her organs – and struck up an unlikely friendship with one of the receiver’s families.
Micki, 43, said: “I feel so proud of how Addie has helped so many people.
“Her life was too short but she is still here every day.”
Addie was born in September 2006, and Micki remembers her as a beautiful little girl with “huge aqua blue eyes and wavy brown hair”.
She recalled: “She was a ball of energy who would never sit still and loved to play.
“Her smile was infectious and it would light up a room.
“The older she got, the more she’d tear around the house – and no cough or cold would ever stop her.
“She loved playing with her big brother Alec (14) following him everywhere.”
But disaster struck in August 2011 when Addie started being sick and complaining of stomach pain.
As she got worse, Micki and her husband Darrell, 50, a stay-at-home dad, decided to take her to hospital near their home in San Tan Valley, Arizona, USA, where the doctors said she had childhood diabetes.
Soon after a CT scan, Addie fell into a coma following a brain haemorrhage brought on by the diabetes.
The family rallied round her bedside, praying that Addie would somehow pull through – but after six days, the doctors said there was no brain activity.
Micki, a health worker, recalled: “I wanted to scream, to grab hold of the doctor and beg him to do something –anything – to save my girl.
“But as I looked at Addie lying still in her bed, I knew the truth.
“My darling daughter was never coming back.”
The couple then took the incredibly brave decision that Addie would be an organ donor.
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Micki said: “I couldn’t believe we were having to make this decision about our four-year-old daughter, but as heartbroken as I was, in that moment, the idea of Addie’s life carrying on through someone else was the glimmer of hope Darrell and I both needed.”
The couple held a memorial service for their daughter and kept her ashes in a heart shaped urn in their living room.
They tried to pick up the pieces of their life again, and in November, Micki received a letter that had been passed on by the organ donation charity.
It was from Jackie Thompson, 37, whose son Grant had received Addie’s liver.
The first line read: “‘I think about you and your daughter every day.”
Grant had been suffering from biliary atresia– a condition of the bile ducts in the liver– since he was just seven weeks old.
Without a liver transplant he would have died – but thanks to Addie, Grant was now a lively little boy, who loved planes, trucks and swimming.
Not ready to talk, Micki put Jackie’ s letter to one side, throwing her energy into raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDRF) and spreading awareness of the importance of organ donation.
It was only in January 2014, after another letter from Jackie, that Micki felt the time was right to make contact with Grant’s family, and the pair first spoke on the phone six months later.
Micki explained: “We talked for hours. About how well Grant was doing, about how much I missed Addie. And by the end of the conversation I felt like I’d known her for years.”
In August, Micki and Darrell travelled to meet Jackie and her husband Kyle, 30, in person at their house in Minnesota.
Talking about the emotional moment they first met, Micki recalled: “I don’t know how long we stood there, sobbing.
“But when we’d eventually composed ourselves, Jackie led us into her house – and a little boy came racing over to us.
“He shouted, ‘I’ve got Addie’s liver!’ and lifted up his T-shirt to show us the long scar running across his tummy.”
Naturally it was a life changing experience for Jackie too.
Meeting Micki brought back all the memories of Grant’s transplant.
She explained: “I remembered the relief when we got the phone call saying there was a liver available for Grant.
“It was overwhelming but I couldn’t stop thinking about the family who’d lost their child.
“As time wore on, I wanted them to see what their brave decision had done for us.
“I was worried that Micki would resent us because our child got to live while she’d lost hers. But she reassured me she didn’t feel that way.
“I’ll never be able to put into words what she has done for us – Addie saved my son.”
Since their first meeting, the two mums have become close friends.
When Grant –who is now five – lost his first tooth, he phoned Micki full of stories about the tooth fairy.
And last year, when Jackie gave birth to her daughter, Nora, she asked Micki to be her godmother – even giving her ‘Addison’ as a middle name.
Micki said: “Five years on since Addie died, Jackie is always there if I need her.
“If ever I’m having a bad day, all I have to do is pick up the phone and speak to her.
“We share such a unique bond. It breaks my heart knowing that, unlike Grant, Addie will never lose a tooth, or start big school.
“But watching him grow is a privilege – and a reminder of the incredible mark my daughter left on this world.”