While walking around the property of my condo complex to take photos of newly blooming flowers, I came across this lovely stone honoring my neighbor's son, Chistopher Field. Please allow me to share his story.....By Sarah Schweitzer
Globe Staff / January 1, 2008
A little over two years ago, Donna Field's only son, Christopher, underwent a 14-hour surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston to correct spinal scoliosis. The surgery was a success but his recovery did not go well. Christopher, 16, developed pneumonia and his breathing became labored.
He was whisked into the intensive care unit, where Donna Field stroked her son's hand and willed him to be well. But Christopher's condition continued to deteriorate. Nine days after his surgery, moments before she learned that Christopher had died, Donna Field recalls hearing a woman ask her if she wanted Christopher to be a donor.
"I just knew I wanted to do it," said Donna Field, 47, of Middleton, a medical records keeper.
Her decision that day in July 2005 set in motion a ripple effect of tissue donations that have reached as far as Portugal. Christopher's corneas have given two people sight. His bones have been used to prepare 39 bone grafts, with two transplanted already and the remainder released for hospital use in procedures such as spinal and reconstructive surgeries. Christopher's cardiac tissue was used to patch a defect in a young boy's heart in Massachusetts.
In all, Christopher's tissue donation will have gone to almost 50 people in need, according to the New England Organ Bank.
Christopher Field, an avowed history buff and Godzillla fan, had suffered since birth from an unidentified condition that left his muscles weakened. He was also diagnosed with scoliosis. He led a largely unimpaired life, using a wheelchair only for long walks. He planned to travel to France to retrace Joan of Arc's footsteps, and hoped to visit Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam.
In 2001, he and his mother moved from Michigan to Boston to be near Children's Hospital, where she hoped a specialist might be able to identify his muscle disorder. Christopher saw doctors every six months, and visits were usually routine and doctors reported little change. Afterward, in celebration, the pair would indulge in a meal at Burger King. But at an appointment in 2005, doctors raised eyebrows and asked pointed questions about Christopher's breathing.
"We both looked at each other and we knew," Donna Field said. The doctors said his scoliosis had grown worse and immediate surgery was necessary to save his internal organs. Nine days after the surgery, Christopher suffered a pulmonary embolism and died.
"It haunts me that he never got his first love or his first kiss. He never had any of that," she said. "He never even got a driver's license."
Still, every once in a while, her heart lightens when a letter arrives in the mail announcing that another piece of Christopher's tissue has been used for transplant.
"When I get the letters, I cry," she said. "But I know it's good."
