The Ultimate Gift
After getting his driver's license, Steven Bellas told his mother he registered to be an organ donor.
“I wasn't crazy about the idea. I didn't like it at first,” Pam Bellas said. “I thought it was a little weird. I guess I didn't understand it then.
“I do now.”
Steven, 21, of Bradys Bend died Nov. 23 from injuries suffered the day before in an automobile accident.
His heart was transplanted and saved a life in the Pittsburgh area. His liver and kidneys were sent to Philadelphia for transplantation and his right lung was transplanted into a patient in Pittsburgh.
“This is what he wanted to do if he couldn't live ... save lives,” Mrs. Bellas said.
“Steven is believed to have saved four lives, maybe five.”
Dakota Mohney, a good friend of Steven's and his football teammate at Karns City High School, never heard him talk about organ donation.
But he wasn't surprised by his intentions.
“Live strong and give back,” Mohney said. “That's how he lived his life. Now he lives on.”
Stronger than ever, perhaps. In this Christmas season of giving, Steven gave the ultimate gift.
Life.
“He was more than my best friend. He was my brother,” Karns City graduate Colt Beham said. “He was the kind of person who would do anything for anybody, always volunteering to help out.
“Steven always thought of everyone else, never himself. For him to donate his organs is not a surprise to me. Even in death, he was still giving. It's a great thing.”
During one Christmas season, Steven was told by his mother to clean up a messy room he had created. He turned that mess into a “Redneck” Christmas tree.
“Him and his buddies turned all that stuff into ornaments,” Mrs. Bellas said, a smile coming across her face. “Bottle caps, a ball cap for the star on top ...”“Deer horns, an orange hat, whatever was laying around,” she said, remembering the incident. “Steven knew how to make something good out of everything.”A 2015 Karns City graduate, Steven was a running back and safety on the Gremlins' football team. He was never a full-fledged starter.“He was a good teammate who never picked on anybody,” said Ed Conto, Karns City football coach. “He was never a self-centered kid. He was proud to represent his school and did everything we asked of him.“He got on the field a lot because he worked so hard. Whether it was on scout team, special teams, it didn't matter. He was a quality character kid, a team player who always contributed.“That's the way he lived. That's the way he died,” Conto added.Once Mrs. Bellas received word her son was brain dead and “I had to make the toughest decision in my life,” she recalled that Steven was an organ donor.If she had not remembered, his organs may not have been removed.“I don't know how it came to my mind, but it did,” Mrs. Bellas said. “It made me wonder how many cases like this fall through the cracks, that the organs are no longer viable because the (deceased) wishes weren't immediately known.“I'm going to write my senator about it ... Organ donors should be in a computer somehow so that never happens.”Once the hospital received word of the organ donorship, CORE — Center for Organ Recovery and Education — took over after Steven was pronounced brain dead and the family decided to discontinue life supportive measures.“The first thing they did was draw blood to begin determining potential matches,” said Amy McClure, a family friend who Steven affectionately called “grandma.”“It's such a quick process. Some organs have longer shelf lives than others,” she said.Word of Steven's organ donation spread quickly at the funeral home as a long line of people waited to pay their respects.“A good many of them were going to become donors,” Mohney said. “There will be a lot more organ donors out there because of Steven's gift.”Mrs. Bellas said the family of her son's heart recipient “is supposedly going to reach out to us in a few weeks, I'm told.”The Bellas family will be part of an organ donorship gathering in Pittsburgh July 5. Families of lost loved ones who donated organs are able to meet families who received them.The entire program is strictly voluntary — but Mrs. Bellas will be among the gathering.“I'm renting a bus,” she declared. “Whoever wants to go can get on the bus and go.”Jeff Beham, who Steven referred to as his adopted stepfather, will be making that trip.“Trying to deal with getting this bad news of Steven's death ... It's a bit uplifting to know other families out there are going to get people back,” he said.“While we're saddened, those families are happy, relieved ... It's a blessing at a dark time.”Dalton Beham, Colt's younger brother and the leading scorer in Butler County football this season, described Steven as a selfless person.“He was a giving person when he was here and he's a giving person now,” Dalton said. “He always cared about other people's well-being more than his own.“That guy was always happy, always smiling. He knew how to put a smile on everybody's face. He gave other people life with his own, when you get right down to it.”Mrs. Bellas said one of Steven's favorite songs was “This Little Light of Mine.”“Your light is shining brightly this holiday season,” she said, looking upward. “We miss you and we love you.”McClure's eyes welled with tears as she spoke.“We miss him like hell,” she said. “But we are proud ... so, so proud.”
An individual donor can help save up to eight lives.Possible organs for donation are heart, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, liver and intestines.There were 116,000 people — men, women and children — awaiting organ transplants in the United States as of August of this year.There were 33,611 organ transplants performed in 2016.22 people die each day while awaiting an organ transplant.Every 10 minutes, a person is added to the list of those awaiting an organ transplant.95 percent of U.S. adults support organ donation, but only 54 percent of them are actually registered as donors.Only three of every 1,000 people die in a way that allows for organ transplantation.Organ donors may still have open casket funerals. The body is always treated with care, respect and dignity.People can be organ donors regardless of age or medical history.There is no financial cost to the family for organ donation.SOURCES: organdonor.gov, U.S. Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplantation
