NYC dad with special needs son gets life-saving kidney from girl, 4, allegedly killed by mom and teen boyfriend

For Bronx “Super dad” Freddy Ramirez, getting a much-needed kidney should have been a celebration –but the jubilant news was cloaked in tragedy when he learned the life-saving organ came from a young girl whose mother and teen boyfriend were charged in her death last month.

Ramirez, 43, father of an 8-year-old boy with autism, had been sick and undergoing intense dialysis treatments for over a year when he got the heart-stopping call that a kidney had been found for him.

But despite the transplant’s success, recovery has been bittersweet since the family learned the organ once belonged to Octavia Aquino, a 4-year-old Indiana girl who tragically died last month on Father’s Day.

Ramirez’ wife Eileen Irizarry-Ramirez, 42, told The Post Thursday she felt compelled to find the family of little Octavia, who allegedly suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her mother, 23-year-old Destiny Rhoades, and her mom’s 16-year-old boyfriend, Christian Gonzalez.

“My husband’s just really in shock. He’s grateful and he’s mourning right now,” Irizarry-Ramirez said.

“Nobody prepares you for that. Yes, you’re grateful, but the pain that family feels, I don’t know how to express it and I wasn’t prepared for it,” she added.

“You’re feeling all those emotions with them even though you don’t know them.”

Getting the call that Ramirez had received a kidney when the wait list can take years was one shock for the family, but learning that it had come from a child — when the doctors initially said it was from a young adult — was incredibly upsetting.

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“The doctors had told him, ‘We’re going to monitor you a little bit more closely because you ended up receiving a pediatric kidney,'” Irizarry-Ramirez said “Obviously, we weren’t told this and he was very overwhelmed with emotion. He completely broke down and was crying.”

According to National Institutes of Health (NIH), pediatric kidneys can be successfully transplanted to adult recipients, usually with successful long-term results.

Irizarry-Ramirez recalled the doctors telling them not to worry about the kidney — and having to explain her husband wasn’t worried, but rather upset over the child’s death.

Police in Evansville said Octavia was found “cold to the touch,” with bruises and a bite mark on her body that Gonzalez, her mom’s boyfriend, admitted to being responsible for, according to a statement from June 17.

Gonzalez was charged as an adult in the girl’s murder, while Rhoades, her mother, was charged with neglect resulting in death, among other raps, police said.

“We were already asking our own family for prayers for the family of the young person who died, and then to find out it was a child, I feel it was really traumatic for [Ramirez],” his wife said.

Irizarry-Ramirez said she also felt an overwhelming urge to contact Octavia’s paternal grandmother to try and convey her gratitude — even knowing that she may not want to talk.

What she didn’t know was that the grandmother, Linda Alvarez, whose son was the child’s father, had been asking about the people who received Octavia’s organs, wanting to know if their surgeries had gone well.

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“It’s just I needed her to know like, I’m not sure if you know your granddaughter was my husband’s donor, but these are the specifics. And she said that on that specific day, she needed to hear from me, she needed a sign from her granddaughter,” Irizarry-Ramirez said about her conversation with Alvarez.

“I feel like we’re family, and I want to protect my family. I want to support my family. And I thought there was no better way than this. And she felt the exact same way, that she was just grateful that we reached out,” she recalled through tears.

The couple’s reaction to learning where the kidney came from was in part because they’re loving parents to a young child themselves.

Irizarry-Ramirez and her husband, who are president and secretary of their son Evan’s PTA, are real-life superheroes to their son, who is a big Marvel fan, the mom said.

“We do have a special needs child, and having his father around is important,” Irizarry-Ramirez said.

“My son thinks I can fix everything. He would tell me ‘Mama, fix Daddy,’ and that would break my heart because, you know as a parent, you’re supposed to fix everything.”

Despite his father’s sickness, Evan handled the surgery incredibly well and was telling everyone at school the following day how his “superhero” daddy was getting better, his mother said.

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“He was telling people the best way a child who’s eight years old and on the spectrum with expressive language delays, can express themselves. He even understood the magnitude of how amazing this was, and how great it was that his father would be able to function afterward,” Irizarry-Ramirez said.

Irizarry-Ramirez and her husband hope that by sharing their story they can honor little Octavia and highlight the importance of organ donations.

“It’s not for a lack of the hospital trying to save Octavia. They did. They went through multiple scans. They did two different brainwave tests,” Irizarry-Ramirez said.

“Just because you’re an organ donor doesn’t mean they’re not going to try and save your life. I think that’s a common misconception within the minority community, and we are minorities. That stigma just ceases to save other people. And how beautiful to think it is of our loved ones living on through others.”

According to Irizarry-Ramirez, Octavia’s organs have gone on to save at least seven people.

“I believe Miss Octavia saved seven people. Her kidneys, her heart, her lungs. She made such an impact in such a small amount of time and left a legacy, and we are always going to think of her. We’re going to celebrate her life, and we are going to make sure that her family feels supported,” she said.

She continued: “And also to get her story out. Child abuse is a big thing and it should never go unacknowledged. These people should face the ultimate consequences for the life they robbed.”

A memorial service was held for Octavia on June 28, during which her family was “showered with love and support,” Alvarez wrote on a GoFundMe page raising donations to help her loved ones weather the tragedy.

“It was definitely the hardest day of my family’s life. I know together we will get through this. I know together we will continue to fight for injustice until those who did this receive what they deserve.”

Additional reporting by Chris Nesi

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