This is a terrible story that starts with a tragedy and ends in an equally sad way. It centres around a boy name Alex Koehne, a teen who was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and apparently died from the disease in March of last year.
His parents made the decision to donate his organs to others as a way of paying tribute to their lost son. It was a generous and agonizing moment, but they knew they were doing the right thing. "I immediately said, 'Let's do it'," Jim Koehne recalls. "We both thought it was a great idea. This is who Alex was."
The operations were performed in New York City and grateful donors accepted Alex's vital organs, giving them the chance at a life he would forever be denied. It should have had a happy ending.
It didn't.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_21472.aspx