Taylor’s Gift

When Todd and Tara Storch lost their vibrant 13 year-old daughter, Taylor, in a tragic skiing accident five years ago, they made a choice they knew their daughter would want.

When the Texas couple were told their daughter would not survive they chose to give the gift of life to others by donating Taylor’s organs. While their grief is still raw, the Storch family have some solace in knowing hope has been restored to other families whose loved ones have been saved by Taylor’s organ donation.

Taylor’s heart, pancreas, kidneys, corneas and liver helped changed the life of five people. As time went on, Todd and Tara knew that Taylor’s gift would have made a huge difference in the lives of the recipients and their families, but there was one person they desperately wanted to meet.

“Hearing Taylor’s heartbeat- that’s really what I wanted since the very beginning; is to find who had her heart and to have a connection with that person,” Tara told Good Morning America. “I can’t wait to hug the person who has her heart.”

That person is Patricia Winters, a 40 year-old mother of two whose heart started failing five years ago after the birth of her second child.

“I can’t wait to hug the person who has her heart.”

“I felt like I wasn’t going to last very long -I was sleeping almost 18 hours a day,” Patricia said of her heart condition. But after receiving Taylor’s donated heart, Patricia can now be a mother to her two young boys.

“The boys are finally really starting to trust me again and are enjoying their mum,” she said

While transplant alliances are careful about telling recipients who their donors are, friends worked it by through information on the internet.  The grateful mother has not found it easy knowing that her heart once belonged to a talented and confident 13 year-old.

“Knowing that she was 13, that in itself was hard, but seeing Taylor’s picture and spending a few days looking at the YouTube (clips of her) just gave me that sinking feeling even more,” Patricia told Good Morning America.

Once Taylor’s parents found out who had received their daughter’s heart they made contact. They arranged to meet Patricia so they could hear their daughter’s heart beat one last time.

In an overwhelming first meeting shown on Good Morning America, Taylor’s heartbroken parents hugged the woman who was alive thanks to their daughter’s donation. Using a stethoscope, the couple listened to their daughter’s heart through Patricia’s chest. Tears flowed as Tara said how strong her heart sounded, and Patricia and her husband, also in tears, said they knew how strong it was.

Todd and Tara have set up the organisation Taylor’s Gift. Taylor’s Gift strives to increase organ donation through its mission to Regift Life, Renew Health and Restore Families.  Taylor’s life and her death have already inspired thousands of people from around the world to become organ donors.

Although Taylor’s young life was taken too soon, her spirit lives on in those who have been touched by her wonderful gift of life. Information on organ donation in Australia can be found here. Watch the video here: