Family of organ donor receives letters from 2 recipients for the holidays
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OMAHA, Nebraska (WOWT) — Two people are alive this Christmas day after receiving the greatest gift one can give…an organ for transplant.
“He was a private person actually he like being alone, but he loves his family, his country, and his music in that order,” said Tolles.
Carl Tolles was fifty-nine years old when he was taken from his family.
Tolles was crossing the street here at 28th and F when he was hit by a car last July.
“At that point, I just didn’t know what to do with myself I just didn’t know we had to wait to go to the hospital to see him Glen said it didn’t look good so now I’m just all crazy and trying to figure out and everything,” said sister Melody Tolles.
Carl Tolles died four days later.
Melody Tolles says her brother was an organ donor.
“It was what he wanted, all the decisions we made his decisions that he told me about before all this happened,” said Tolles.
Two others received Carl’s kidneys and are alive today because of it.
“I told my oldest daughter Conchita ‘oh my gosh, I got a letter from one of the recipients that got one of his kidneys I read it to her and I opened up the other envelope and said the other one from Roger and I said ‘oh here’s the other one’ I said ‘well this is cool.’”
For melody, her brother was taken way too soon.
This bear holds a recording of Carl’s final heartbeats.
And her brother’s death, while tragic, says a lot about the kind of man Carl Tolles was.
“This is what he wanted to do to help someone else out so I’m grateful for that,” said Tolles.
Melody Tolles herself is an organ donor.
There are more than 200 people in Nebraska waiting for a kidney transplant and 100 people waiting for a liver.
Becoming a donor is as easy as saying yes when you renew your driver’s license.
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