Wall Teen's Final Gift: Saving Lives Through Organ Donation

WALL, NJ — Luke Bautista was the kind of kid who loved to make people smile. Whether it was rocking out to a video of a dog barking along to the 1970s hit "The Hustle" or making funny faces or creating spoof videos, the 15-year-old from Wall found a way to do it.

"Luke was just this special kid who made everybody's day better. He was always happy," his father, Chris Bautista, said Saturday. "I don't think he ever had a bad day."

It is the smiles and laughter and silly antics that Chris remembers most as he talks about Luke, who died May 6, just five weeks after the boy's 15th birthday on April Fool's Day.

"He was a very unique person, very much his own person," Chris said. "He didn't really care whether people liked the things that he did as long as he was having fun. But it (his sense of fun) was contagious."

But Luke was also the kind of person who cared deeply about those around him.

"At Luke's funeral, several of his friends came up to me and said he always asked how their day was, and was waiting for an answer," Chris said.

It is because of the kind of person Luke was that Chris and Carla, Luke's mother, agreed to donate their son's organs, Chris said. In doing so, they saved the lives of five people, a fact that Chris and extended family and friends will celebrate Sunday at Brookdale Community College in Middletown during the NJ Sharing Network’s Annual 5K Celebration of Life Walk.

The event pays tribute to those who gave the gift of life, celebrates those who have received a transplant, offers hope to those currently waiting for a transplant and remembers those who passed away while waiting for the gift of life, according to a spokesperson for the NJ Sharing Network. It begins at 10 a.m. on the campus at Brookdale, 765 Newman Springs Road. Those interested can register Sunday morning beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Chris said that when he and Carla agreed to donate Luke's organs, they had no idea the extent of the impact of the donation. His heart went to a 14-year-old boy from New York; his liver to a 55-year-old man from New Jersey. His kidneys went to two men from New Jersey — the right to a 30-year-old male and the left to a 27-year-old — and his pancreas was transplanted into a 36-year-old woman from Pennsylvania.

Additionally, Chris said, they agreed to tissue and muscle donations that have helped countless others.

"We had no idea how much of an impact this could have when we were asked," Chris said. Luke's descending aorta, for example, was donated and used to help people who are on kidney dialysis, he said, while skin tissue, bone and ligaments were used to help burn victims and children with cleft palates, he said. Ligaments from donors are used to help reconstruct the ligaments of people who have torn them in their knees or other joints.

"These are life-enhancing things," he said of the tissue donations. "Luke was always into scientific stuff and learning about these kinds of things. We know Luke would be like, 'that's so cool.' "

Watch Chris's tribute video, from Luke's funeral, below:

Making the donations and talking about giving those gifts to others has been part of the healing process for the family, Chris said, which includes Luke's older brother, C.J.

As has remembering the adventuresome, spunky teen who had a zest for everything music — he was a drummer, Chris said — and had dreams of becoming a video producer.

"I took my boys to so many concerts over the years," Chris said, more than most people attend in their lifetimes. Surprise tickets to Foo Fighters induced a typical Luke response: "He ran around the house excited and yelling, then sat on the couch upside down, still yelling," Chris said. "Going to those shows with him is a favorite memory. He always had such an appreciation for the music."

At Wall High School, Luke's video production dream led him to become an active member of the TV Production club, where he created the amusing — a video for a new product called a SPEN, a combination spoon and pen, that would allow you to eat your breakfast and do your homework at the same time — and the more serious: Luke and some friends put together a video for a school contest called "Something Special," about one person helping another. He posted the videos on YouTube just days before his death.

You can watch them both here:

Chris said it was Luke's adventurous spirit that led him to do things like jumping off a second-story roof.

They also believe it is what led to his death. Luke was found unconscious and not breathing by C.J. after Luke accidentally inhaled a toxic amount of air freshener, Chris said. C.J., who had become certified in CPR as part of receiving his black belt in karate, called 9-1-1 and immediately began chest compressions, Chris said. That allowed EMTs to get Luke's heart restarted, Chris said, but his brain never responded. He was declared brain dead a few days later, Chris said.

"It's surreal, almost like it didn't happen," Chris said. "It's something that, every day, the reality hits again and again."

It was C.J.'s heart compressions that allowed Luke to assist so many others, Chris said.

"No one ever performs CPR with the thought of organ donation," he said, but C.J. doing so kept blood and oxygen flowing to the other organs, allowing Luke to help others.

"We spent Mother's Day making funeral arrangements, but the family of a 14-year-old in New York was celebrating him getting to live," he said. They don't know much about that boy, beyond the fact that he is the oldest of three boys and loves soccer, but knowing that Luke is living on through that boy and the others, "it's helped us and helped his extended family."

"He has my son's heart and he's a lucky kid," Chris said.

Chris said there are 177 people who will be walking in the 5K Sunday as part of Team Luke, which has raised more than $77,000 to assist with organ donation.

“It is an amazing gathering of families, friends and volunteers who have been touched by organ and tissue donation," said Joe Roth, president and CEO of the NJ Sharing Network, which aimed to raise $1.25 million in 2016 to increase the number of lives saved through research, donor family support, education and public awareness about the life-saving benefits of organ and tissue donation and transplantation.

NJ Sharing Network made 531 organ transplants possible in 2015, Roth said, a 37 percent increase from 2014. There are more than 122,000 people waiting for a transplant and 22 die each day while waiting for a transplant, the organization says, but one donor can save eight lives and one tissue donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people. In New Jersey, there are 5,000 people on the waiting list, and one person dies every three days waiting for a transplant, the network said.

Those facts and the donation response to Luke's story are part of what makes Luke's impact so special, Chris said.

"It's incredible," Chris said, referring to the $77,000 in donations. "It's the same kind of wow factor as finding out how many people Luke had helped through the organ donation. It's a testament to the kind of person he was."

Chris said making the decision to donate Luke's organs wasn't something they had discussed with the teen ever before; it's not a conversation most people have with their kids.

"We didn't talk about but we all assumed it's what he would want," Chris said. They learned later from one of Luke's friends that they had talked about organ donation in school and that "he thought it was cool."

"When you live your life that way (making everyone smile), donating your organs when you pass on is so obvious," Chris said.

Luke, who is survived by Chris, brother C.J., his mother Carla and her fiance, Tim, and his children, and a host of extended family, was someone his parents always knew was special, Chris said.

"We always said Luke was meant for great things. You knew his future was meant for something big," Chris said. "Organ donation was not what we had in mind."

But they work to spread the word because "anything we can do in Luke's name, it's helping us," he said.

"He is living on through us now," Chris said.

For more information about the NJ Sharing Network, or to register as an organ or tissue donor, click here.

To donate to Team Luke — Chris said donations can be made even after Sunday — click here.

Luke's friends posted this tribute to him on YouTube:

Photo collage of Luke Bautista, courtesy of Chris Bautista