Health

The Amazing Reason This Mom Got to Hear Her Son's Heart Beat One More Time After He Died

February 1st 2016

After the tragic death of her 7-month year old son, one California mother, Heather Clark, decided to donate her son’s organs. But little did Clark know that decision would save the life of a four-year-old girl hundreds of miles away in Arizona. This weekend, Clark got to hear her son's heart beat once again when she finally had the chance to meet the girl who received her son's organs three years earlier, Fox 10 Phoenix reports.

Heather Clark's sonFox 10 Phoenix - fox10phoenix.com

In 2013 Clark's son Lukas tragically died at the hands of her baby sitter's abusive boyfriend. But even in her grief, Clark didn't think twice about donating her son's organs.

Heather ClarkFox 10 Phoenix - fox10phoenix.com

"There is another family out there, somewhere, you know who’s feeling something of what I'm feeling, somewhat, and I have the chance to make them not go through what I'm about to go through," Clark told Fox 10 Phoenix.

That family came in the form of a 4-year-old girl named Jordan Drake in Arizona, who spent the first few years of her life at the Phoenix Arizona Hospital suffering from a congenital heart defect and who was in desperate need of a heart transplant. Amazingly, Jordan got it, by way of Clark's son Lukas.

Jordan DrakeFox 10 Phoenix - fox10phoenix.com

In meeting Clark for the first time this weekend, Jordan's mother Esther Gonzalez was overwhelmed with emotion and expressed her gratitude. Lukas was Clark's only son.

"It's hard to describe…that she would be so selfless to be able to think of another family while she's going through her grief," Gonzalez told Fox 10 Phoenix.

Heather Clark and Esther GonzalezFox 10 Phoenix - fox10phoenix.com

Not only did the two mothers meet, but Clark also had the chance to listen to her son's heart beat which has been resurrected in Jordan. Clark was brought to tears and received a teddy bear with a recording of her son's heart beat to take home as a reminder of her son and his precious sacrifice.

"The only thing I can think of is, I can't save my own son so why not save someone else’s child because I can't do anything with him," Clark said.

The need for donated organs.

Lukas ended up saving two other lives. But not everyone is this lucky.

There is a real need for organ donations, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Each day, an average of 79 people receive organ transplants but 22 people die waiting for transplants. To put it in perspective, there are more than enough people waiting for an organ transplant to fill up an entire football stadium twice over. The breakdown of people waiting to receive a transplant is: 42 percent Caucasian, 30 percent African American, 19 percent Hispanic/Latino, and 9 percent Asian and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander.

You can see the two mothers' encounter below.

Related: This Mother Just Perfectly Described What Postpartum Feels Like With a Selfie

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