Nearly a year after an 18-year-old Texas college student was gunned down in a drive-by shooting, two white men have been given the organs he donated.
Patrick Powell died in July 2017 when two boys, ages 13 and 14, unintentionally made him their target as he played basketball at a local park. The rising Jarvis Christian College sophomore, whose classmates launched a fundraiser to support his family, would have turned 19 days later, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Minister Richard New had been going to dialysis five days each week after his body began to shut down following an earlier kidney transplant from his wife.
“Just the idea that someone would have to die for me to live is a difficult prospect to deal with even when it isn’t a tragedy like this … probably a fluke of nature in some ways,” he says.
New, who guessed he’d be receiving Powell’s kidney after reading about the incident that lead to his death, is one of two men who were given transplants. Powell’s grandmother, Patricia Ivy, said it was a “good occassion” because “I have gained two grandsons” due to the organ donations.
“The guilt of … look, I’ve already had one transplant,” New says. “I’m 36, I’ve lived a great life. I’ve had great opportunities to serve people and the Lord in the Salvation Army. Why me? Why do I need to get Patrick’s organ? Why can’t he just live and the Lord take me?”
Powell’s older brother, Antonio Jones, said the student was the only one in the family who signed up to be an organ donor.
“He’s probably very ecstatic right now at the moment,” Jones says. “I’m sure his spirit is very moved.”
