Granger Smith's Wife Reveals Late Son River's Organs Saved 2 Lives

Zach Seemayer‍
Updated
Amber Smith expressed that she's going through 'the full gamut of emotions.'

Two people's lives were saved through transplants using organs donated by country singer Granger Smith's late 3-year-old son, River.

In June, Granger and his wife, Amber Smith, suffered an unimaginable loss when their youngest child died in a drowning accident at their home in Texas. Granger said after the tragedy that the family would be donating River's organs. Amber recently received word that the transplants had been successful.

"We got the letter that our tiny, red-headed hero gave life to 2 adults. A 49 year old woman and a 53 year old man," she wrote in a heartbreaking post on Instagram on Saturday. "I cried when we opened it. Cried out of sadness & cried out of love. I’m so proud to be River’s mama and I’m so grateful to God that he gave him to us for those incredible 3 years."

Amber, who shares two other children with Granger -- Lincoln, 5, and London, 7 -- also opened up about the painful decision to donate River's organs after having to take him off life support "when 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery."

"I've always known I wanted to be a donor if anything were to ever happen to me. I just felt that if I had viable organs, why would I go into the ground with them? My spirit would be in Heaven, so why not save a life if I could?" Amber explained in the post. "Never in a million years did I think I would be making that decision for my baby."

I’ve always known I wanted to be a donor if anything were to ever happen to me. I just felt that if I had viable organs, why would I go into the ground with them? My spirit would be in Heaven, so why not save a life if I could? Never in a million years did I think I would be making that decision for my baby. When 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery (yes 0, not 10 or 1%, 0) after shock and reality set in, I thought, how can we bury our sweet baby and not try to help others? His body is perfect, his organs are perfect, we had to do something. There are so many people waiting for an organ to save their lives. The doctors said donation was quite a process. We would have to search for viable recipients and it could take days. We knew River’s spirit was in Heaven, but we couldn’t bear to watch his tiny, earthly body be pumped full of all the medicines for 3 or more more days while they searched. They tried to expedite the process so our family could be in peace, told us they would take him back to operate the next morning, but we wouldn’t know what organs could be used until after. With such a small body, organs had to be measured physically, not just by X-ray. I spent the night laying in bed with him, crying and talking to him while they kept running tests and taking blood. The next morning family and staff lined the hall for the “walk of honor”. We told them River liked to go fast, so to honor him, they pushed him down that hall faster than they had ever pushed anyone. Granger and I held each other and cried. We got the letter that our tiny, red-headed hero gave life to 2 adults. A 49 year old woman and a 53 year old man. I cried when we opened it. Cried out of sadness & cried out of love. I’m so proud to be River’s mama and I’m so grateful to God that he gave him to us for those incredible 3 years. I pray these 2 recipients live healthy, joy filled, full throttle lives just like Riv. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest, decisions we’ve ever made. There are over 113,000 people waiting for transplants & 20 people die each day waiting. Go to OrganDonor.gov to see how you can help give life as well. ❤️

A post shared by Amber Smith (@amberemilysmith) on Jul 13, 2019 at 11:25am PDT

"I thought, how can we bury our sweet baby and not try to help others? His body is perfect, his organs are perfect, we had to do something," she wrote, explaining how the process for finding recipients for her sons organs was difficult and lengthy, and required them to run tests on River before removing his life support. Amber wrote that she stayed by his side throughout the night.

"I spent the night laying in bed with him, crying and talking to him while they kept running tests and taking blood. The next morning family and staff lined the hall for the 'walk of honor.' We told them River liked to go fast, so to honor him, they pushed him down that hall faster than they had ever pushed anyone. Granger and I held each other and cried."

Amber concluded her post with a heartfelt call for organ donations, sharing, "I pray these 2 recipients live healthy, joy filled, full throttle lives just like Riv. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest, decisions we’ve ever made. There are over 113,000 people waiting for transplants & 20 people die each day waiting. Go to OrganDonor.gov to see how you can help give life as well."

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