A gift with a larger than life impact: Rohen’s organ donation story

ENGADINE, Mich. (WJMN) – Who would have thought the woman from Engadine, another woman in Washington, D.C. and a dog in California would have an unbreakable bond? They do, and it’s through the extraordinary lifesaving gift from a boy named Rohen.

“If you were to ask some of his friends, they would say he was the funny kid in the class, but he was also the smarty pants that would get in trouble,” said Candice (Candy) Labadie, Rohen’s mother. “He was also the kid that anybody who needed math help would go to. When he was in fourth grade, we decided some of the behaviors he was having in the classroom were actually due to him being bored. He tested at a ninth grade math level in fourth grade. So he just loved math and he loved the computer aspect of math as well. He knew he was a wild, crazy, fun child, but he had the biggest, caring heart. Like if he saw someone sad, he would go out of his way to make sure that they felt better.”

At a young age, even Rohen had dreams for his future.

“He either wanted to do K9 handling in the police or do bomb sniffing dogs as a Marine, because his dad is a Marine,” said Labadie. “Marines are the best in our world.”

Rohen was just in the fifth grade when he passed away in 2022 due to a brain aneurysm.

“That was due to a birth defect that no one would have ever known about or found or anything,” said Labadie. “It just happened to be his time to go. So we rushed down to Helen DeVos Hospital in Grand Rapids. He was gone by the time that we were able to get there.”

Candy lost her boy, but there was still more of Rohen to give.

“A few years prior to that, my younger brother had passed away from cancer and they were able to donate his eyes,” said Labadie. “Rohen always thought that was so cool that someone was walking around being able to see because of his uncle T.J. So when we lost him, you know, we would do what Rohen would have done. We donated. Rohen was able to donate seven different organs, both eyes and tons of tissues and bones, which led to over 20 people being impacted by his donations.”

One of those recipients was Wendy Ryan, about 850 miles away in the Washington, D.C. area.

“I got sick the year Rohen was born,” said Ryan. “For the entirety of Rohen’s life, I was getting sicker and sicker until the point that for the four years leading up to my transplant, I was no longer able to eat or drink. I was subsisting on what’s called total parenteral nutrition. My life was literally closing in on itself. I was getting sicker and sicker and weaker and weaker. All of the available options that the doctors had, were no longer becoming as effective as they once were. My small bowel, despite numerous surgeries, was no longer able to sustain me. It was literally, I was on my my last days. As my friends would would later tell me, I was becoming transparent. I would fall asleep mid-sentence. I was going to bed at night, literally not knowing if I was going to wake up the next morning. I spent four months on the transplant waiting list, waiting for a new small bowel. When that call came, it was my final shot. It was my only shot.”

Because of Rohen’s gift, this has brought new life to both Wendy and Candy.

“He’s given me back life itself,” said Ryan. “Here I am two years later. My surgery was in February of 2022 and I’m eating again, I don’t have any more tubes and I’m able to enjoy life again.”

“Wendy is the newest member of my family,” said Labadie. “This connection has been life changing, not only for Wendy because it literally changed her life, but from myself because when you lose someone, you lose a lot of yourself and a lot goes with that. Through the connection and chatting with her and getting to know her and love her has brought back so much of my old self and my old soul. It’s very healing. The amazing gift that she gives me of carrying on Rowan’s legacy because everything she does, she does for him.”

Wendy’s brother, the Chief of Police in Campbell, California has been able to help in remembering Rohen by naming the department’s newest K9, Rohen.

“I think a lot about Rohen’s legacy and the impact that he’s made, not just on my life, but so many,” said Ryan. “My brother and I were talking about that after my surgery, and we’re very close and we were talking about it. I was telling him how Rohen had wanted to be a K9 officer and he said, ‘What would you think if we named our new K9 after Rohen and called him K9 Rohen?’ Immediately I started crying and I knew I had to ask Candy first. But what better way to to honor someone than to keep talking about them and to keep their name alive and to, to be able to have people remember them and to be able to talk about organ donation every day.”

“During one of our conversations she brought that up and my husband and I were like, ‘Really? K9 Rohen? That’s the coolest thing ever.’ When Rohen would get super excited, we would call it ‘happy hands’ and he would go like this (making happy hands),” said Labadie. “So as soon I heard that, all I can picture is him up in heaven going (with happy hands) ‘A puppy, a puppy!’ Just being able to have those things that she does, that doesn’t seem like a whole bunch is so, so beautiful and precious and meaningful to me.”

“Then to tell people about this amazing little boy who did so much in the time that he was here,” said Ryan. “It all matters. The more that we do to talk about it, it changes lives. People ask about how did he get his name, and people then tell this story. Every time someone asks, every time someone is given the opportunity to hear, that reverberates. You throw a stone into a pond and it doesn’t just land once, it makes ripples.”

“When I wrote the letter to all the recipients, I just wanted them to know that it was okay,” said Labadie. “Yeah, we lost our son, but this is a gift for you. Don’t feel bad. Don’t feel guilty. This is for you. Live life, love life. Be a happy, crazy little kid just like him. Even if you’re 46, you can be a happy, crazy kid. I always had that fear when I lost Rohen, that I had lost him, but I haven’t. This has made his legacy and his memory keep giving and giving and giving. That’s what I want. I want people to be aware of the humanity side of organ donation. It’s not just about all the science and that sort of stuff. It impacts lives in ways that you could never imagine.”

Rohen’s family has been trying to make the trip from Engadine to California to meet K9 Rohen. They have a GoFundMe Page set up to make that dream possible some day. For more information, click here.

To register as an organ donor or to learn more about organ donating, click here.

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