'Claine's Articles

In a house at the end of Nix Street, there live Greg and Karen Loomis and three of their four daughters -- 10-year-old Jessica, Sarah Beth, nine, and Katelynn, four. It is a bustling household, with the girls frequently preoccupied with games and puzzles (if not the TV), their dad at work on a home computer in an office not quite walled off from the rest of the den by some cabinet shelves, their morn trying to keep order. Evidence of family life is abundant, with photograph portraits crowding the cupboards. Near the front door is an impressive collection of hardware -- trophies the girls have brought home from various pageants. Newest of the lot appears to be the brass column Sarah Beth brought home from El Dorado as Petite Miss Mayhaw. In the same contest, Katelynn got an award for finishing as first runner-up (or, as she tells it, “winner-up”) in the Toddler Miss Mayhaw category.
        Up on the opposite wall is a drawing of the only missing daughter sketched partly out of the imagination of a family friend, Karen finds it somewhat unsettling because it shows Maclaine with her eyes open.
        “Of course, Maclaine never opened her eyes” during tile three days she lived last summer, says her mother. The picture “, shows her as she might have been,” looking up at the artist while lying ill repose in a small gown and bonnet, smiling a sweet infant’s smile.
        The hard reality of Maclaine’s brief life can be seen in other pictures around the room. One framed photo shows her swollen, darkened face partially hidden behind breathing hoses and siphoning tubes. She is lying in a different sort of repose, on a hospital table. The only peace to be found in the heartbreaking image comes in knowing she was completely oblivious to her physical predicament. There was no medical attestation that-- outside the womb she ever possessed the capacity for thought.
        Most of Maclaine’s little body lies buried in a little grave beside one of the lanes which run through Memorial Park Cemetery out on Maul Road. But not all. Clear across the nation, in a small Michigan community called Downriver, her little heart still beats in the diminutive body of a year-old boy. He might not be alive today but for the extraordinary sacrifice of the Loomis family and the miracles which are made possible by the science of this age.
        The boy’s name is Samuel. His first birthday comes Sunday (May 7). He and his parents and his three-year-old brother will not celebrate the big event at home in Downriver, Michigan surrounded by family and familiar friends. They have already traveled down to Arkansas, to a place they have never been. And on Sunday morning -- Samuel’s birthday morning -- they’ll make their way into Camden’s Hillside Baptist Church for morning services, the church in which Maclaine would have grown up had she survived, to pay homage to the infant who died so that another could live.
        Karen entered her pregnancy with considerable confidence brought on by all sorts of advantages. Being an experienced mother helped. Being a registered nurse at Ouachita County Medical Center strengthened her position even more. The experiences of her medical carter meant she was mentally prepared to handle any personal emergency. Having the emotional support of the hospital staff while at work was a tremendous boost. Her sister-in-law is a nurse in the Labor and Delivery Department. Expert opinions were around every comer. Any needed medical equipment and procedures were close at hand. Karen seemed to want for nothing as she carried Maclaine those sine months. But....
        Early in her pregnancy, she became concerned upon learning fifth disease was circulating among children in the community, and realizing that her own kids had probably come into contact with it. Fifth disease is caused by a virus and has little effect on its victims, usually children. “Some children may have vague signs of illness or no symptoms at all,” says one medical source. But it can cause serious problems for unborn children, and Karen knew this.
        Sometime later, she sensed her baby might be having seizures. The baby’s feet quivered at times, and Eaten could feel the tiny convulsions against her side. One of the Loomis daughters has epilepsy, and Karen wondered if this newest member of the family had developed the same genetic trait.
        Not long before the baby was due, it assumed a breached position on, meaning the baby was lying horizontal above the birth canal. The breach lasted only a week, but the incident added to Karen’s suspicions that this pregnancy was becoming too complicated.
        Four states away, other events were unfolding.... events which would eventually touch the lives of Greg and Karen and the rest of their families, The events first come to light in this story by Pat Andrews, an editor for the suburban weekly News-Herald newspapers in the Detroit, Michigan area:

As July of 1999 appeared on the calendar and Karen’s labor began, the growing list of difficulties seemed to confirm her fears. The day Maclaine was born -- Saturday, the 3rd -- she went into the hospital’s Labor and Delivery room at 6 a.m. for a 17-hour marathon stay. Epidurals administered to her “didn’t take quite right,” and it took three tries before the trunk-numbing drip line was successfully inserted into her backbone. At one point she felt an unexpected movement in her abdomen, followed by a “burning pain” in her side. Neither she nor anyone in attendance knew at the time, but Karen had just suffered an internal rupture and was bleeding profusely. She would require two units of blood after the baby was delivered.
        With a fetal monitor of the unborn’s heartbeat saying the baby was in physical distress, Karen was wheeled out of L&D and into the hospital’s operating room for a cesarean-section birth. No more waiting for a natural birth. Her lower extremities deadened, Karen was awake for the entire procedure as the surgeon scalpeled her abdomen in order to get the baby out.
        “For days afterward,” recalls Karen, “I could still hear the beep-beep-beep of that monitor.”
        From the time the baby first appeared, it was motionless, entirely limp. The surgeon rushed it to a nearby warming table where another physician detected a faint pulse and coaxed the infant to breathe, however weakly. “I remember somebody asked for the time, and somebody else said it was 23:31 hours. Other than that,” Karen remembers, “nobody said a thing. There was absolute silence. I never heard the baby cry.
        “The baby girl had made a timely arrival. She was not underweight-- not at six pounds, seven ounces. There was no outward sign of trauma to indicate why she was unable to breathe on her own. After reviving her, the puzzled staff called Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, and a helicopter was soon enroute to fetch Maclaine. During the two hours it took the copter to fly down from LR and land outside Camden hospital, a therapist made the baby breathe by squeezing a hand-action bulb. There was no alternative to keeping her alive. The hospital has no ventilator small enough for infants.
        At 4 a.m., the copter touched down in the hospital parking lot. Maclaine--wrapped in thermal plastic so she could retain her body heat, and placed in a bag for the flight to Little Rock -- was brought to Karen’s side for a two-minute good-bye.
        “Before they left, I made them bring her to see me, because l thought I was never going to see her alive again,” recalls Karen. The hospital staff opened up the bundle just enough for Karen to reach inside to touch her foot, and then the baby was hurried away.
        That afternoon, as a dose of post-operative morphine wore off, Karen reached for the telephone and dialed up Children’s Hospital. “As a nurse,” she says, “I realized things hadn’t gone well. I wash’ expecting to hear good news. I would have been shocked if they’d told me she was doing great.”
        The news was bad.
        After the chopper lifted off and turned North through the early Summer-morning skies, Greg went home, showered and left for Little Rock with his Dad at the wheel. They reached Children’s Hospital at 8 a.m. and went to the Neonatal Unit where they found Maclaine “the biggest of the bunch” in the 80-bed wing. The neonatal staff was “used to working with one-pound babies,” and said working with an infant Maclaine’s size was almost a new experience.
        But the staff had already conducted a few tests -- none with positive results. Light in Maclaine’s eyes did not cause them to dilate. There was no muscular reflex. An ultrasound scan of her brain appeared to show widespread damage. A later electroencephalogram confirmed the worst: there was no brain activity to be found. Doctors speculated she might eventually be trained to breathe on her own, but that was the most which could be hoped for her.
        Back in Camden, Karen was determined to make her way to Little Rock. “I didn’t think Greg should have to be up there dealing with all this without me,” she recalls. Losing a baby “is a hard thing to take alone,” so she made plans to go to Children’s Hospital as soon as possible. There was even talk among the hospital staff of sending her by ambulance.
        First thing Monday morning, arrangements were made for a nurse to accompany Karen to LR in a car driven by her mother. “Technically, I wasn’t discharged,” and under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have been allowed to go.
        At the Little Rock hospital, she was put in a wheelchair and pushed to the Neonatal Unit, where Greg was found holding Maclaine in his arms - which wasn’t easily accomplished, what with all the tubes connecting her to various life-preserving machines. He joked that “next time, I want the cordless model baby.”
        Family members were already discussing the possibility of organ donation, and after Karen’s arrival she put the issue to the Children’s Hospital staff. “They were very surprised” but went about contacting the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency, and by that afternoon a meeting of two dozen family members and ARORA officials was organized in Children’s large conference room.
        Karen and Greg insisted upon donating Maclaine’s organs, and, as the ARORA people left to find the necessary paperwork, they came to realize they were about to embark upon a project they hadn’t expected to be so unusual. Children’s Neonatal Unit had never before been involved in an organ transplant. “The babies they usually have are too small for transplants,” Greg says he was told.
        Hillside Baptist pastor Willis Moore was due at the hospital that evening for a dedication service, so Karen and Greg and their girls and parents went back to the place where Maclaine was kept to wash her and dress her for the occasion. The infant’s limp form was placed in a pink outfit with a pink bonnet, and everyone took turns holding her.
        ARORA officials returned with the paperwork for Karen and Greg to sign, delaying the dedication. Afterward, “they would show up every 30 minutes” to check on Maclaine mad conduct procedures, or give her medicine to prepare for the transplant, recalls Greg. “Once the paperwork was signed, they were always around there.”
        Tuesday, shortly after noon, final tests were conducted and Maclaine was officially pronounced dead, even though the machines still made her breathe. Karen and Greg and the girls continued to take turns holding the baby, until the time for the operation arrived. They were told ARORA had only been able to place Maclaine’s heart for transplant, and that a surgical team was on its way from Michigan to save it for a two-month-old boy born with a heart defect.
        Months later, the Loomis family sits in the den of their home on Nix Street and remembers those last moments with Maclaine, Karen and Greg and the girls watching videotape o f them selves holding the infant a final time. “I love you ‘Claine,” says little Katelynn as she smiles up at the camera over the infant’s closed eyes.
        Abruptly, the next scene appears. It is of the baby, lying in a tiny white casket in a viewing room at Proctor Funeral Home back in Camden. The ordeal is over, and Maclaine is gone. Gone back to heaven after her three-day sojourn on earth.

Maclaine
She lived three days

Sam
At nine months

After burying Maclaine at Memorial Park, the Loomis family returned to everyday life-- to work and church services and beauty pageants and computers, etc. But there was no forgetting the experience of those three days in July. In the months which followed, Karen and Greg became active in ARORA and worked to raise awareness in Camden about the need for donated organs. Greg created a Web site on the Internet dedicated to the subject, and honoring the memory of “our little angel.” Readers with internet access may find it at www.clainescorner.com.
        ARORA informed them the transplant in Michigan had gone well, but they learned little of the details. The rules call for agencies like ARORA to serve as buffers between the families of organ donors and recipients. Any contact between the Loomis family and the still-unknown family in Michigan would have to wait until mutual consent, “and I’m sure they had their hands full taking care of a baby that had undergone a transplant,” Karen says.
        Eventually, she found words to express her thoughts to the people in Michigan, and months later sent a letter -- anonymously, as required -- to them through ARORA. And sat back to wait.
        In mid-October, a package from ARORA arrived at the house at the end of Nix Street. Karen made Greg wait until she got home from work at the hospital to open it. Inside was the gift of a little angel and a letter which read:

“Dear donor family,

        “We were thrilled to receive your letter. It was given to us on October 4. We are happy to know answers to so many questions we’ve had about your family. I have written you a million letters in my head, but fell short of putting the words on paper. Please forgive us. There just aren’t enough words to tell you how much we appreciate your most generous gift. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for saving Samuel’s life. At the worst moment of your life, you cared enough to help us. We find happiness in your words ‘....she is up in heaven grinning down on all of us....’ For our family she has a special place of honor. Kind of like Jesus, even though she couldn’t hold on to this earthly life -- she gave the incredible gift of life to a little baby boy, who without her wonderful gift, would have surely died.
        “Your family has been in our prayers since we learned Samuel needed a new heart to survive. On the night of his surgery, we initially cried for joy -- happy and relieved Samuel would be given a chance. Moments later that joy turned to tears of sadness as we stopped to think of your grief. We are so sorry you have lost your little angel. As much as we desperately wanted to save Samuel, we hated the fact it took a tragedy in your family. It really broke our hearts.
        “We are thankful you are faithful Christians. We are too. Your family has been on the prayer list at our church. Our congregation is pretty close-knit. Many members decided to fill out a card for your family (you’ll find it enclosed). They truly care about how you are doing.
        Samuel was born on May 7. He was three weeks premature.
        Although he was little (four pounds, five ounces), he looked healthy and beautiful. They took him away to be cleaned up after birth. Hours passed. We couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t brought him into our room. They finally told us a specialist was on his way to look at Sam. We learned there was a problem with his heart -- “maybe just a tight valve.” With each specialist who looked at him and with each test, the prognosis got worse. Finally, when he was four days old, we learned his only hope was for a heart transplant. Doctors were straight with the facts from the beginning. They said there was only about a 50-percent chance a heart his size would be donated in time. Even if there was a heart, they said, the odds of him surviving the surgery itself was around 50 percent, at best. But we know God doesn’t work with percentages. We could only pray and give him over to God.
        “Sam was exactly two months old on the day of his surgery. During the surgery, there was a rough period when things looked bleak. But somehow, he pulled through. Perhaps a little angel was spurring him on, telling him to fight hard. On July 3 l, three-and-a-half weeks after surgery, he came home for the first time. He is doing great. So far, no rejection.
        “Samuel has a big brother named Steven who is three-and-a-half years old. He loves Samuel and tries to help take care of him. He is really proud of being a big boy now. My husband Steve is an accountant at a university. He enjoys all kinds of sports, especially golf. He is a wonderful singer. He is involved in a quintet which sings at churches and events. I am a full-time room. I’m just a few college courses away from becoming an elementary school teacher. We decided to hold off graduation and teaching until the boys get older.
        “We would be delighted to receive the crocheted blanket for Samuel. What a thoughtful gesture! It will be a wonderful keepsake. Please tell the baby’s grandmother we appreciate it so much. You are an incredible family -- so brave and faithful. We will never stop thanking you for what you’ve done. We pray Samuel will grow up to be a Faithful Christian whose life will bring honor to the memory of your little angel.
        “We would like to continue to stay in touch with your family --if you wish the same. We wrote a note to the Transplantation Society of Michigan to release our personal information to your family if you request it.

Joked Greg when he and Karen took the photograph out of the package the Michigan family had sent, and gazed upon the face of the smiling baby boy who lived because of their little girl’s heart: “she didn’t give him any of her hair.”
        Before the month of October ended, late one night with the girls put to bed, the telephone rang in the Loomis household and Karen answered it. There was a moment of silence before she heard a woman’ s voice say: “1 don’t know how to say this, but our baby has your baby’s heart....”
        “I didn’t know what to say to that,” Karen said. “I just cried and cried.” After regaining her composure, she and Baby Samuel’s mother talked for two hours, on into the night.
        They’re all good friends now, having visited often by phone and e-mail. The Loomis family keeps close track of Samuel’s progress. “Physically, he’s about six months behind in his development because of the transplant, but he’s doing really well,” says Greg. “He can’t sit up on his own yet, but he can hold himself up.
        “They took him back to the hospital for a biopsy of his heart, and it showed no signs of rejection. So that’s good. And he’s down to taking the last three medicines he’ll have to take for the rest of his life.”
        In February, doctors in Michigan cleared Samuel for long-distance family, and his parents mentioned to the Loomises they’d like to come to Camden, Arkansas for a visit in the Spring.
        “It was their idea to come and be here this particular weekend,” Greg says. “They haven’t said a thing about it being his birthday, but Sunday is his first birthday” and the Loomises feel honored at being able to play host for the event.
        Maclaine’s father says he looks forward to seeing the little boy. “I don’t know what God has in store for him, if he’ll find the cure for cancer or whatever. There’s no expectations from us for what he’ll do in this life. I just hope he lives a long, normal life.
        “The great thing is: he’s alive today. Everything else that happens because he’s alive, is our blessing. That’s how I look at it.”

        I wanted to thank you for your article, "Her Heart Still Lives" (in the May 7 Report). You did a very good job sharing with others how a family can be blessed even through loss. We have heard many good remarks about the article.
        Again, we appreciate your covering this story.
        In Christ's Love....

EDITOR: Thank you. To follow up on the story of Linda's granddaughter Maclaine and Samuel, the tiny Michigan infant who received Maclaine's heart in a rarely performed transplant, he arrived in Camden that May 7 weekend to meet donor parents Greg and Karen Loomis, and along with the rest of his parents were guests of the Loomises at Hillside Baptist Church on Samuel's first birthday, I got to meet his parents and visit with his Dad, an accountant at a university. They're really fine folks, and I was impressed by their decision to come to Camden and Hillside to honor Maclaine's memory on the occasion of Samuel's first birthday.
        By coincidence, my son Robert's first birthday came exactly a week earlier (the previous Sunday, Hillside pastor Willis Moore had me fetch the baby from the nursery at the close of morning services and stand at the altar so the congregation could sing "Happy Birthday" to him). At Samuel's birthday party in the Fellowship Hall following the next Sunday's service, I brought Robert around to "meet" Samuel. I knew "'Baby Sammy" (as he's known across Michigan to those who followed his story in newspapers and on TV) would be smaller than Robert because of' his late development, but the difference in the two babies was still difficult for me to accept. After all, Robert was born prematurely and was low-weight, too. And the story Karen told me of how unfortunately Maclaine entered the world sounded just like Robert’s except that after the eternally long first minute Robert cried, if only for a moment.
        Working on the story of Maclaine and Sammy was an intensely emotional experience for me, having just celebrated Robert's first birthday (in fact I interviewed Greg and Karen that very' evening, and it was very hard seeing little Maclaine in the videotape of her three brief days of life on earth).
        As blessed as 1 felt before hand, knowing the story of Maclaine and Sammy has left me feeling doubly grateful for my baby boy. My prayers are with Sammy as he grows up (I told his dad that you can see in Sammy's face he's going to be a sharp kid), and especially for your entire family for the sacrifice you made. I thank you all so very much.

Maclaine Elise Loomis
July 3, 1999 - July 6, 1999,

It's just a small little mark. Many of you probably didn't even notice it.
That last little comma is so easy to overlook - just like it would be so easy to overlook her short life.
But that last little comma holds a very big meaning for us - it means that July 6, 1999 was not the end of Maclaine's story, just a little pause...

Maclaine's "arrival" on July 3, 1999 changed our lives forever. Sometimes, I think that she had a bigger effect than our other children, but then I realize that it wasn't really a bigger effect, it was just more concentrated, since she was only here for those three short days. God blessed us so much by giving us that time with her. In those three short days though, we got to hold her, and love and kiss her, and we even got to give her a little bath and dress her. We all had a chance to spend time with her - time to take pictures and video. Her sisters got a chance to know she was real and to be "big sisters." We got a chance to dedicate her and her short life to the Lord, and shortly thereafter, we returned her to His eternal care. Most importantly, Maclaine got a chance to be an organ donor - to give the “gift of life” - that very thing which she was not able to hold on to for herself, and a very precious little boy got a chance to live a long and healthy life.

We didn't expect Maclaine's birth to be any different than any of her sisters'. There were no major problems during the pregnancy nor anything to indicate that trouble was to be expected. When her delivery did not progress as expected, the doctor decided that a cesarean section would be required. Even at this point, Maclaine showed no signs of distress and there were no indications that this would be anything besides a routine operation and birth.

At 11:31 p.m. that evening, Maclaine was born, but there were no newborn cries as expected. Maclaine was not breathing and had little or no pulse. The doctors and staff of the Ouachita County Medical Center worked to revive her - they were able to get her heart beating normally again, but she required assistance to maintain her breathing. A helicopter ambulance was called to transport her to Arkansas Children's Hospital for a more thorough evaluation and treatment. Sometime around 4:00 in the morning of July 4, "Our Little Angel" earned her nickname, taking off on that AngelFlight to Little Rock.

From the very first time we talked to the doctors there at Children's, we knew there was very little chance of seeing all those hopes and dreams we had for Maclaine's life come to be. She had no reflexes and her pupils didn't dilate when exposed to the light. The doctors said that a scan of her brain showed "some of the worst swelling they had ever seen." The doctors were always honest and straightforward and never lead us to have any false hope for Maclaine's recovery. We could feel how much the doctors and staff there at Children's truly cared for us and Maclaine - just like those at OCMC - and we could tell they hurt along with us as we all knew that Maclaine would shortly be called home into God's arms.

We realized that God's plans for her life would be different that those we had hoped for. We knew He must have a very special task for her – one that required her to be with us only a short time - and we found out that He had some very special blessings in store for us too. While going through one of the most painful and heartbreaking times in our lives, God seemed to have blessings and comforts for us each and every day. While none of them could replace those hopes and dreams we had for Maclaine, we have never felt so loved and cared for. As we looked back, we can see all the special things that God did to prepare and help us through this time – to make things a little “easier.” God sent so many special, wonderful people into our lives during those days – all the doctors, nurses, and the rest of the staff at OCMC and Children’s, the people of the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency and the Ronald McDonald House, all our coworkers, and of course, all our family and friends and church family. God wrapped His arms around us and brought our family together with one heart and mind – to the point that we could almost complete one another's sentences. All the decisions we had to make during that time just seemed to fall right into place.

I think the decision to allow Maclaine to be an organ donor caught the staff there in Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit a little by surprise. In most cases, the medical staff approaches the family about organ donation, but in our case, we were doing the asking of them. We asked if she might be able to be an organ donor and what steps would we need to follow. The NICU staff did not have all those answers - but they promised to find out. Most of the babies there usually have problems that prevent them from being organ donors. In fact, none of their patients had been an organ donor since they had moved into their new location in the hospital - about a year and a half. Maclaine was about to bring a new experience into this NICU at Children's.

An EEG taken Monday morning showed the same results as the test done Sunday morning - Maclaine had no brain activity. Whatever had happened – whatever had gone "wrong", there were no decisions to make about what treatments to try or what we needed to do. God relieved us of all the pressure and the heart wrenching of making those decisions about her life or “quality of life”. All we could do is return her to Him. After one final test on Tuesday morning that failed to show the even slightest amount of brain activity, Maclaine was declared brain dead just after noon. After talking to the ARORA counselors and signing all the necessary paperwork and answering quite a length of questions concerning our family medical history, the search began that afternoon - the search for those waiting for the gift of life.

Knowing that our time with Maclaine was quickly drawing to an end, we - as a family - bathed her and dressed her in a beautiful pink dress her grandmother had crocheted. Her “biggest” sisters worked hard to clean all the glue out of her hair that the EEGs had left. Then, surrounded by her family and our friends, our pastor led in her dedication. We thanked God for her – regardless of how short our time together was. We prayed that God would use her life – both in the effect it had on all of us and also by being able to help extend or save the lives of others through organ donation. After the dedication, everyone got a final chance to hold her and say his or her goodbyes. Her grandparents and sisters left for home early that evening, leaving Karen and I to spend a last few quiet hours with her.

But those last few hours weren’t really all that quiet though. Maclaine’s care was now under ARORA’s direction – not the Children’s doctors - and they were monitoring her closely and making adjustments and administrating medications that, hopefully, would increase the chances that any organs she donated would be successfully received. They were recording her vital statistics about every fifteen minutes to be able to report to the doctors and teams interested in her organs. Even with all this activity going on, everyone was still so respectful of Maclaine and us. They worked around us when we were holding her and even, at times, just read her vitals statistics through the window so they wouldn’t disturb us.

I remember that wait was about like waiting for the score of a ball game that you weren’t getting to see or hear first hand. Almost every time one of the ARORA counselors would come by, we wanted to know “any word yet.” Well, about 10:00 p.m. we “scored a few points.” There was a little boy in Michigan that needed a new heart, and he and Maclaine looked to be a perfect match in size. We had been told how important size was in organ transplants in children and especially infants - a few weeks of growth could determine whether an organ could fit or not. A team was preparing to head to Arkansas to examine, recover, and deliver her little “gift of life” back to Michigan. Because of her "small" size, however, her heart was all that could be matched. Regardless of how many lives could be helped or saved, we knew that God had a perfect plan and that organ donation was definitely a “winning move.”

Time to say our final goodbyes came about 1:00 a.m. on the morning of July 7. The team from Michigan would be there shortly and I knew we needed to be out of their way - there was a little boy waiting for a heart. It wasn’t so much a “goodbye,” but more a “see you later.” We knew that we would get a chance to see and hold her again – when our days here on Earth had drawn to an end. We gathered up all Maclaine’s things – we were amazed how much she had accumulated in those three days - and left her in God’s care.

Little Samuel was born on May 7, 1999. He was about three weeks early and a little small – about four and a half pounds – but God was watching over him and protecting him. Samuel was delivered by cesarean section about 3:30 p.m., and spared the stress of a “normal” birth, which he would have most likely not survived. Shortly after being born, it was noticed that Samuel was having trouble breathing and that his coloring “just wasn’t right.” Samuel was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit for more test and exams.

After three days of tests, a problem was found with Samuel’s heart - pulmonary atresia with intact septum and stenotic coronary arteries, and a solution was also found – a heart transplant. On May 12,1999, Samuel was placed on the National Donor Registry List as a priority “1A” – the most critical and most urgent.

As they waited Samuel’s mom and dad and big brother and their family and friends prayed that Samuel would get the heart he needed, but their prayers were tempered a little by knowing the cost that Samuel’s new heart would come with. They knew that for Samuel to get the heart he so desperately needed, that another family would face the loss of their child. So as they prayed for Samuel, they also prayed for that other family – not knowing who they would be or what their circumstances would be or even knowing for sure that the heart would come in time. They had faith that God would answer their prayers for Samuel, but they faced the possibility that Samuel might not get the heart he needed in time and decided that if that was God’s will, they would be willing to let Samuel be an organ donor to help those others that waited still. His family and the hospital held a news conference, making an appeal for more organ donations, telling about little Samuel and his need for a heart. They knew that their appeal might not end up helping Samuel directly, but they knew there were still others out there waiting for those “gifts of life.”

On the night of July 6^th, they got the call they had been waiting for. A possible donor heart had been found for Samuel. A recovery team left Detroit and headed south to check out to heart to make sure it would work for Samuel. At about four o’clock that next morning, the word came – the heart was a match. Samuel was readied for his part of the surgery while the recovery team brought his “gift of life” back to Detroit. His mom and dad spent some special time holding and loving Samuel – they knew that there was no guarantee the surgery would be successful and there were many things that could go wrong. At about 5:00 a.m., Samuel went into surgery, his fate and future was in the hands of a transplant team working with a tiny gift of a new heart and in the hands of God that guided and protected them all.

He grew bigger and stronger every day, and his family and the hospital held another news conference, sharing the good news about Samuel’s new heart – praising the skill of the transplant team, thanking the donor family, thanking God for all His blessings and care, and reminding everyone that more organ donors are needed for all the other people waiting for the “gift of life.” Only three and a half weeks after getting his new heart, Samuel got to go home from the hospital on July 31.

In September of 1999, we sent ARORA a letter to offer to the family of the little boy that received Maclaine’s heart. We wanted them to know a little bit more about “Our Little Angel” and her family. We wanted them to know how much God cared for us through her short life and death and that we knew that God was in control of all things and that we were trusting in His plans. Most of all, we wanted them to know that we were praying for them – that God would bless them and that watch over them all.

In late October, a package arrived at our door. Even though it was small, it held a lifetime of love and thanks. Inside, a letter from the recipient family, a beautiful angel ornament holding a heart engraved, “To my little angel, love Samuel”, three angel-bear pins for our girls, and a photograph of a precious, smiling little boy. It seemed like Christmas had come a little early that year. We were so overjoyed to hear about Samuel and how well he was doing. We had prayed back on that night in July, that the family of this little boy would love him and care for him just like we would have loved and cared for Maclaine, and that they would teach him to truly appreciate the “gift of life” that he had received and to thank God for all His protection and care.

Also in that package was a form – a form to sign allowing ARORA to release our personal information to Samuel’s family if they would like to contact us directly. Sue and Steve had said in their letter that they would like to stay in touch with us if we would like and that they had already authorized the release of their information. We signed it and mailed it back to ARORA the very next day.

About a week later, one Wednesday night after church, the phone rang. We ended up talking to Sue and Steve for about two hours that night.

As much as it hurt to lose Maclaine, it has been just as much of a joy to know Sammy and Steven and Sue and Steve. They have become family to us – truly another blessing from God. They have reciprocated Maclaine’s “gift of life” by sharing Sammy with us.

Over these last two years, we have gotten to share in all the wonderful events in his life – and we have also shared in the times of concern. As Sammy gets bigger and stronger and get all those teeth for a nice, big smile, we get to see the new pictures. When he took those first little steps on his own and started walking, we got to hear the good news that very day. And when Sammy gets sick with an ear infection, we know and we pray for God to watch over and protect and heal him. And when time comes for one of his biopsies to check for rejection, we are praying – and we rejoice when we get the good news that not the least sign of rejection has been found.

Sammy and his family have been so much more than we ever hoped and prayed for that night. I have said if she would have been able to donate all her organs, and all the recipients and families responded like this, we would have been simply overwhelmed. In May of 2000, we got to celebrate a most wonderful occasion with them - his first birthday! Sammy and Steven and Sue and Steve came down to visit, just in time for Sammy’s first birthday. They got to meet our family and see where Maclaine would have grown up. We got to hold little Sammy ourselves and see that smiling face and share a few days with him and his family. And we got to listen to that heart beating again – a first hand experience of the wonder and miracle of the “gift of life.”

We hope Maclaine and Sammy’s story will touch people’s hearts and impress on them the importance of organ donation. There are so many more people out there waiting on that “gift of life” – children, teenagers, and adults of all ages. There are people that are days or even hours away from running out of time to wait. We need everyone to be willing to be an organ donor. Then, we need everyone to make sure your family knows your wishes concerning organ donation. That’s all there is to it – be willing and make sure your family and friends know.

We are always so happy to be able to share our own experiences with anyone that would like to hear. We wear buttons every day with Maclaine and Sammy’s pictures that say, “I’m a Donor’s Dad/Mom!” When someone asks about the buttons, we have a chance to tell their story and all about organ donation. For those times when they don’t have time to listen to the full story or if they just want to know a little more, we have created a website in Maclaine’s memory and in Samuel’s honor – www.clainescorner.com There you can read much more of their story, see pictures of Maclaine and Samuel and their families, find links to websites with more information about organ donation and infant loss, and read the latest updates on Sammy and watch him grow. Please feel free to visit “The Corner” and leave us a little note in the guestbook. And if you have any questions for us or need any information we can help you with, email links are there in the frame on the left.

When we tell about Maclaine and Sammy and the “gift of life,” it’s like she’s living on - actually, a part of her is. Her little heart beats on today in a special little boy up in Michigan.

"We prayed that God would use her life...by helping others through organ donation.

She's only three months old, so there is not quite yet the pitter- patter of little feet around the Nix Street household of Greg and Karen Loomis. But there is the pitter-patter of a tiny heart at work in the latest Loomis arrival, and that's made all the difference in the world to this particular family.

Maegan was born the day after Christmas, a miracle baby.
Her mother concedes, "She probably wouldn't have been born" if not for the tragic birth of her sister Maclaine back in the spring of 1,999. "Maclaine was going to be our last one," a fourth daughter for Dad Greg.
"When Greg said he had been looking forward to walking a fourth girl down the aisle, I almost cried," Karen said Friday evening while holding Maegan in her lap.
It's a much-publicized story: Maclaine had to be revived at birth and showed no signs of consciousness after doctors at Camden hospital got her heart beating. Greg and Karen made the hard decision to allow a heart transplant, and a medical team from Michigan went to work to give the gift of life to another newborn. "Baby Sammy" as he was called in the Michigan media, became the youngest person ever to undergo a heart transplant.
The two families eventually established contact, and the Loomises came to learn what a difference their daughter's heart had made in a home clear across the country. For Sammy's first birthday, his family traveled south to Arkansas to spend the weekend in Camden and attend church - at Hillside Baptist - to express their gratitude.
Both families remain in close contact by Internet and telephone, and Greg describes their relationship as if Sammy - soon to turn three years old - as a nephew. "I really enjoy hearing how he's doing," he said.
Apparently, such closeness between families of donor and recipient was once atypical. Organizations such as the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency - which helped arrange the transplant of Maclaine's heart - work to such extent to protect the privacy of donor families that establishing communication with the recipient is difficult.
The Loomises' acceptance of the loss of their daughter and the love they hold for Sammy and his family has been something of a success story for ARORA. In just the past few months, they've been featured in an Arkansas newscast tied to an episode of NBC' s ER about organ transplants, put before a class of Henderson State University psychology students studying grief and honored at the Governor's Mansion by Mike Huckabee.
This weekend they're being called back to Little Rock for more recognition by ARORA. In June, the organization is sending the entire Loomis family to Disney World in Orlando, Florida for a week to participate in the biennial U.S. Transplant Games.
"Just a few years ago it seemed almost no attention was paid to organ transplants," Greg said. "Now it seems like we're picking up speed.”
Certainly, ARORA shows a preference for the Loomises as spokesfamily for the cause. Their story never ceases to stir interest.
Now Greg and Karen have added another chapter with Maegan.
"I was teasing her the other day," recalled Karen. "She was lying in my lap, grinning. All of a sudden she laughed - a big belly laugh out loud - and I said her sister Maclaine is tickling and playing with her."
Her mother good-naturedly worries Maegan will be spoiled from too much attention spilled over from the loss of Maclaine. Big sisters Jessica (12 years old), Sarah Beth (11) and Katelynn (five) constantly lavish coos and kisses upon their infant sibling. Having missed Maclaine, "they love Maegan" and even the youngest, Katelynn, doesn't mind a bit that she's no longer the baby of the family. "They all take care of their new sister," said Karen.
Maegan missed the difficulties which attended Maclaine's birth. This time, Karen took off work as a Camden hospital nurse for the last six months of her pregnancy. Although Maegan arrived a month early, there were no problems during the caesarian delivery, and today she is an alert, healthy, thriving child.

PROUD PARENTS: Greg and Karen Loomis with daughter Maegan, born the day after Christmas.

'Baby Sammy'
Turns three May 7

Thankfully, the Loomises weren't faced again with the decision they had to make in '99.
What they tell the public in their new role as proponents of organ donation is that they're at peace with what happened.
Making that decision was easy for us because it meant helping someone else," said Karen. She admits that thinking about a transplant in the time after Maclaine was born, made her extremely uneasy. "My exact thought was: I'm not going to send her into surgery and let them cut her heart out. But then I almost immediately thought: how can I not do it?"
"All our lives would have been a lot more disappointing if we had said no.,” declared Greg.

We hope Maclaine and Sammy's story will touch people's hearts and impress upon them the importance of organ donation. There are so many more people out there waiting for that "gift of life." Children, teenagers and adults of all ages. There are people who are only days or even hours away from running out of time. We need everyone to be willing to be an organ donor. Then we need you to make sure your family knows your wishes concerning organ donation: That's all there is to it - be willing, and make sure your family and friends know.
We are always so happy to be able to share our own experiences with anyone who would like to hear us. Every day we wear buttons with Maclaine's and Sammy's pictures. The buttons say "I'm a Donor's Dad!" and "I'm a Donor's Mom! " When someone asks about the buttons, we have a chance to tell their story and all about organ donation.
For those times when people don't have time to listen to the full story, or if they just want to know a little more, we have created a website in Maclaine's memory and in Samuel's honor- www.clainescorner.com There you can read much more of their story, see pictures of Maclaine and Samuel and their families, find links to websites with more information about organ donation and infant loss, and read the latest updates on Sammy and watch him grow.
Please feel free to visit "The Comer' and leave us a little note in the guestbook. And if you have any questions for us or need any information we can help you with, e-mail links are there in the frame on the left.
When we tell about Maclaine and Sammy and the "gift of life," it's like she's living still. Actually, a part of her remains alive. Her little heart beats on today in a special little boy up in Michigan.