EAGLE, Idaho — In 2015, three years after the death of their 16-year-old daughter, Heidi and Ted Hill met the woman who received their youngest child’s heart.
The Washington woman, now 35, had a stethoscope at her house and allowed the couple to listen to the heartbeat.
“It was joyful. It wasn’t sad at all,” recalled Heidi Hill, who has since become an active organ donation advocate. “It wasn’t emotionally overwhelming at all. It was pretty cool.”
Their daughter, Shauna Hill, suffered critical injuries in a December 2012 collision in Eagle. She was on life support for 10 days.
Shauna’s liver saved the life of a mother of five, now 52, who also lives in Washington.
“We share Christmas cards, and her children have written me thank-you letters,” Heidi Hill said.
Her kidneys were donated to two elderly grandfathers. Her pancreas was donated for islet cells, clusters which produce vital hormones, including insulin.
The chaplain at the hospital where Shauna died told the Hills that it’s very common for parents who’ve lost a child to end up divorced. They beat the odds, they said, by channeling their grief into action — promoting organ donation, highway improvements, new equipment for rescue personnel and a law to help veterans transfer their education benefits that would otherwise be lost when a family member dies.
