THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 16, 1995 TAG: 9508150091
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
On July 3, Tommy and Bonnie Davis lost a child.
Dean was a loving, giving 15-year-old who had expressed to his parents many times that you have to help others whenever you can, in whatever way you can.
A 35-year-old shipyard engineer and a 1-year-old in St. Louis, Mo., can see again, thanks to Dean's corneas. Another youngster received a valve from his heart. His bone marrow, skin and bone have been passed on to help heal the lives of still others.
Dean's generous nature was part of his life, his parents say.
Thanks to them, Dean's philosophy lives on.
He was killed in a recent accident while riding a three-wheel ATV, or all-terrain vehicle.
``It has helped with the sorrow and the grief,'' Tommy Davis says.
Nobody ever would have questioned the fact that Dean loved to share with others. If he came into the house for a soft drink while playing with friends, he always took enough sodas outside for everybody.
``I used to tell him, `Now, Dean, we can't feed the whole neighborhood,' '' his father recalls, chuckling.
The Davises moved to Isle of Wight County when Dean was 3. But the family spent much of their time at their mobile-home park on the Peninsula, where Dean would have been a sophomore this fall at Hampton Christian High School.
He was generous at school, handing out pens, pencils and paper to others who had forgotten their supplies.
Soon after his death, the Davises got a note from a teacher at the school telling them their son would often loan lunch money to youngsters who had none, that he had even sometimes given his own lunch away.
But they didn't know how he felt about organ donation until a boy on his baseball team died last spring. The boy had a kidney disease, Bonnie says, and the boy's mother donated a kidney. The transplant was unsuccessful, but the event opened communication in the Davis household.
``Dean and I talked about it,'' Bonnie says. ``He said that organ donations could help somebody live longer, grow up, have a family of their own.''
He said that was the way he would want it. And the Davises remembered that conversation minutes after they were told their son had died.
``A woman came into the room after we talked with the doctor,'' Tommy says. ``She asked us if we'd ever thought about donating his organs. We said, `Yes. Yes.' ''
Tommy believes Dean died in his arms. One of the two boys he'd gone fishing with at a pond near their home came running to the house to tell him Dean had been hurt. Tommy ran to the scene of his son's accident. He took training in emergency medical techniques after witnessing a young man die in an accident several years before. ``I felt helpless,'' Tommy recalls. ``I had to do something so it would be different if it ever happened again.''
But Tommy Davis was helpless once more. He says he knew how seriously injured Dean was as soon as he saw him. The three-wheeler had flipped over and landed on Dean.
Dean was the Davises' younger son. Their older son, always close to his brother, is in the Coast Guard, stationed in North Carolina. The entire family was shocked by Dean's death, they agreed. But they knew what the boy's wishes would have been, and they carried them through.
Some people think a body will be mangled if organs are donated after death, Tommy says, and he wants those people to know that's not the case. There were no marks on his body.
``In his death, he has reached out to help many people live a better life,'' Carolyn Wilson, director of Lifenet, an organization that handles organ donations, wrote on a card she sent to the Davis family. ``What a gift to give!''
Just as Dean's organs have become a part of others' lives, so has his spirit. His father says many of Dean's friends have now made the decision to sign the backs of their drivers' licenses so they, too, can be organ donors.
Once there was a move to keep families of donors uninformed about who benefited from organ donations. The Davises, however, have made it clear they want full details. They want to know more about the recipients.
``Whoever got his heart valve, I want to meet them,'' Bonnie says. ``They will have a big, big heart now.''
The shipyard engineer's wife contacted them. She told them about her husband, who had gone blind from a rare eye disease, and about their two little children. And she told them something else that touched even deeper.
Dean had loved to play baseball. He played second base on his high school varsity team, and, with his dad coaching every year, he played on a community team. The shipyard engineer coached baseball.
``When I found out that,'' Tommy says, smiling, ``I said, `Yeah, bud, you can still watch the game.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Dean Davis
Died in three-wheeler accident
by CNB