‘Cam isn’t really gone, he just gained more area codes’: Father of Alto football player reflects on impact his son made as an organ donor

TYLER, Texas ( KETK ) – Cam’Ron Matthews was an Alto football player, loved and respected by many and after his tragic and sudden death, he was able to leave a lifelong impact.

He collapsed on the field during a football game October 16th of 2015. His unexpected death had a profound impact on his family, friends and community.

“He had just gotten his permit, so we never actually knew that he had signed up to be an organ donor until that night,” Ronnie Matthews, Cam’Ron’s father, said.

Almost a decade later, his father vividly remembers the worst moment of his life.

“He was walking with him at first and then all of a sudden you just kind of seen his feet kind of started dragging and we knew it was something serious then,” Ronnie said.

Ronnie was initially blinded by the pain, but Cam’s memory lives on blossoming in the six lives he saved as an organ donor.

“On some of your worst days, you can be having a bad day and then just the thought of his heart still beating and that his lungs are still pumping air and that his liver and kidneys are functioning somewhere else. Cam isn’t really gone, he’s just gained more area codes,” Ronnie said.

Cam’Ron’s legacy is not only at the dedicated field but being an organ donor left behind a more lasting impact in the lives of others.

“On the same field that we watched our son die a year earlier, we got to listen to his heartbeat. A man from Mississippi put our ear to his chest and we listened to our son’s heartbeat on the same field that we watched him die,” Ronnie said.

At the time, Cam was the only member of the family registered. Now, after meeting the six recipients, the entire Matthews’ family are organ donors.

“Why not leave them with something to where they could not only remember you, but a physical person that you can go and talk to and touch and call and to check on and know that your loved one is still with you,” Ronnie said.

The Matthews family is using this time during Multicultural Organ Donor Awareness Month to encourage everyone to check that little box.

“I think a lot of people look at it as if ‘maybe this is something– if I get sick that, you know, maybe they’ll let me let me expire just to get my organs.’ It doesn’t work like that because we watched the nurses and the doctors do everything they could to save our son. No doubt about it,” Ronnie said.

Ronnie hopes more people understand that lives are saved by adding the little red heart on their drivers license.

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