In death, teen helps save lives as organ donor

Palmer

Brandi Palmer, 17, of Kingsville was to start her senior year this week at H.M. King High School and after graduation was scheduled to leave June 4 for the Navy.
   Fate, however, would have other plans.
   After several days of severe headaches for which she sought medical attention, Brandi suffered a stroke that landed the teen-ager in the hospital.
   A day later, on July 29, Brandi died of a brain aneurysm.

How you can help To help Brandi’s family with funeral expenses, mail contributions to Mona Palmer, P.O. Box 1705, Kingsville, 78364.

   "God has taken an angel to save an angel," said her mother, Mona Palmer,.
   Palmer's decision to donate her daughter's heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and intestine has saved the lives of six people.
   Brandi's heart now beats in a 50-year-old Arizona woman and her lungs saved a 19-year-old Colorado woman. Her liver went to a 12-year-old Texas boy; her intestine transplanted in a 49-year-old New York woman; a kidney went to a 46-year-old Texas man; and her other kidney and pancreas has made a 35-year-old Texas man diabetes free. Brandi's tissue, also donated, has helped numerous other patients.
   'Spirit is still with us'
   "I know she's gone, but because her organs were able to save others, I feel her spirit is still with us," her mother said. "And that means a lot to me."
   In Texas, there are 4,727 patients on transplant waiting lists. Nationally, there are 77,371.
   While most donors donate an average of four organs, physicians were able to transplant eight of Brandi's organs, said Pam Silvestri, spokeswoman for Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas.
   Because of Brandi's B blood, a relatively uncommon blood type, and her petite size - Brandi was 5 feet 2 inches tall and 102 pounds - finding a match for each organ wasn't an easy feat, Silvestri said.
   Not only did the blood type need to match, Brandi's organs were suitable only for petite adults or children.
   Palmer said she decided to become an organ donor herself when a friend of hers died years ago awaiting a heart transplant.
   Requested information
   Brandi, on the other hand, first broached the topic recently when Palmer took her to get her driver's license. Interested, her daughter requested more information about organ donation at the time.
   Brandi, born in Corpus Christi and raised in Falfurrias, had moved with her family to Kingsville two years ago.
   She played tenor sax in the school band for the past four years and played volleyball her freshman year of high school.
   Brandi looked forward to taking on additional responsibilities this year as a lieutenant for H.M. King's Junior ROTC program.
   But what she most often spoke about was the date she was to leave for Great Lakes, Ill., to join the Navy It would mark the beginning of an overseas adventure and career move that she had been planning since her sophomore year.
   "She had a lot of plans for the future and one way or another she was going to get there," said Nichol Edlin, Brandi's stepmother. "That was all there was to it. And when she ran across obstacles, she found a way above it or around it."
   Fascinated with the water
   Brandi was most fascinated with the water, swimming and going to the beach whenever she could, Palmer said.
   Brandi also wanted to get a college education, but worried how she would finance such a pursuit. When she signed up with the Navy, she found a way to get an education and see the world, Edlin said.
   "She was such a beautiful gift from God, a girl who just lit up any room she walked into," Edlin said.
   One of Brandi's favorite teachers, Robert Najera, a math teacher at H.M. King who took a leave of absence the past school year to serve in the Air Force Reserve, said Brandi was one of those students who often came to his class during off periods.
   "I don't talk about her in the past tense," Najera said. "She will always be my student and she will always be my friend.
   "She is the kind of student I knew would do great things. Even in death, she is still doing good."