MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Minnesota mother heard her late daughter’s heartbeat again a year after the 12-year-old’s death when she met the woman who received her donated heart.
Stephanie Scharbach introduced Sandra Segebart, a hardcore Green Bay Packers fan, to a group of Minnesota Vikings fans. The gathering was being held to remember Stephanie’s daughter, 12-year-old Autumn Paulson, who died a year ago in a fire.
Through the gift of organ donation, Autumn Paulson's legacy is living on a year after the 12-year-old died in a fire.(Source: Stephanie Scharbach, WCCO via CNN)
Sandra received Autumn’s donated heart last summer and drove all the way from Oklahoma to thank her mother. She also had a surprise up her sleeve – a stethoscope – so Stephanie could hear her daughter’s heartbeat once again.
“It’s different,” Stephanie said. “Obviously, she’s not my daughter. \[But\] I think of her heart as still kind of Autumn’s in a way. So, it’s just very confusing.”
Now, Autumn’s legacy is living on inside a woman she never knew.
“She’s living through me and helping keep me alive,” Sandra said.
The donation has also given birth to a special new connection, even though Sandra is a Packers fan.
“She’s a Cheesehead. Autumn was whoever was winning… Maybe she would have been a Packers fan. I don’t know,” Stephanie said. “She loved cheese.”
Stephanie estimates hundreds of families could be impacted by Autumn’s donated organs.
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