The loss of her daughter gave an Arkansas mother the chance to give the gift of life to another Natural State woman

LITTLE ROCK, Ark – In their lifetime, very few people will get to say they were the reason someone got another day on Earth. For one Arkansas woman, though, that statement holds true.

Jaimie Moffett registered herself as an organ donor when she was just 18 years old, but little did she know that more than 10 years later that decision would change someone else’s life forever.

“Jamie was so full of life,” Jaimie’s mother Heather Hall recalled. “She was goofy, she was always trying to make someone laugh.”

At the same time, 100 miles away, another woman oddly shares similar characteristics to Jaimie.

“I love to make people laugh,” Monnett resident Katie Davis said. “We’re both crazy and fun to be around.”

Like Jaimie, Katie is 29 years old with a family of her own. Even though they’ve never actually met, Jaimie and Katie are connected for life.

When it all changed

“It was Saturday morning, June the 8th,” Heather remembered.

Like a movie you’ve seen a thousand times, she said the moments of this day play over again.

“I saw a state trooper pull up about 9:30,” Heather recalled. “He was looking for Jaimie’s next of kin. I said, ‘Well, I’m her mother,’ and he said, ‘Well, she’s been in an accident.’”

Jaimie was taken to UAMS in Little Rock, something her mother realized was a bad sign.

“Being in the medical field, I knew it was bad, it was real bad,” Heather said.

At the same hospital, Katie Davis was in for yet another appointment.

“My liver was pretty much dying off,” she explained.

The women were two strangers now just feet apart, both fighting for their lives.

Heather then got the news no parent ever wants to receive.

“It was a traumatic brain injury,” she said. “They had done everything they could, but it was not survivable.”

Doctors told Heather her daughter was an organ donor and that she could choose to whom the organs got to go if she knew someone in need.

At the time, Heather said, no one came to mind. Then a chance conversation led to a life-saving decision.

From talking about parking to saving a life

“I saw a lady maybe three cars down and she started walking to me,” Heather said. “She said ‘Hey, can I ask you something? I don’t mean to bother you.’”

The woman was the mother of Katie Davis.

“She was like, ‘Hey you know this pink pass? Are we supposed to put it on our rearview mirror, or are we supposed to just hold it?” Katie remembered her mother asking.

“I said, ‘I’m probably not going to need mine after today, I’ll try and find out for you,’” Heather remembered answering.

That brief exchange over parking led to a deeper conversation, and as often happens with parents, the topic turned to their children.

“My mom was telling her about me,” Katie said.

“She said, “My daughter needs a liver, she’s on the liver transplant list and she’s gotten really sick,’” Heather remembered. “I said, ‘Oh, my daughter’s here to donate her organs.’”

A few minutes passed and the ladies went their separate ways, but one thing was clear.

“I told my mom, Jaimie says we’re doing this,” Heather said. She told the doctors about Katie and her need for a liver.  Within hours, tests were being done.

“[Doctors said] we think we have a liver for you,” Katie recalled. “I was like, ‘Me? You have a liver for me?’”

It turns out that Jaimie and Katie were a perfect match.

The ending of one life meant the saving of another

It had been more than a decade of uncertainty for Kaitie since she was told she needed a new liver.

“I waited 10 years, 2 months and 19 days for my transplant,” she said.

Today, Katie is healing and looking toward the future, knowing it wouldn’t be possible without her guardian angel.

“I just knew that God made me wait so He could plan all this out to have the perfect donor and donor family,” she said.

That feeling of providence was also felt by Heather.

“The instant, I don’t know peace, relief that came over just knowing that it was going to happen,” she said. “That she was going to be able to help someone that I had met in a parking garage on probably one of the worst days of my life.”

Doctors say Jaimie was able to donate organs to seven different people, including Katie. Heather and Katie have been able to talk since the surgery and plan to get together after Katie has healed.

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