Brayden, Dean, Karen and Mitchell Gladigau.
Photo by
Prue Peters Photography
Knowing you’re about to die must be daunting, but knowing four other people will live because of your sacrifice must provide some comfort.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Karen Gladigau didn’t want her untimely death at 49 to be in vain; she wanted to save others.
She was a registered organ donor long before she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at just 48 in 2023, so a conversation had already taken place.
However, given the nature of the insidious disease, which progressively damages and kills the body’s movement-controlling nerve cells — eventually rendering a person unable to move, speak, swallow or breathe — it wasn’t as simple as signing on a dotted line and waiting for fate to intervene on its schedule.
Having MND meant Karen had to choose a date to die if she wanted to go through with organ donation.
“She decided very early on in the piece that she wanted to donate her organs but didn’t realise she could only do it a certain way (with MND), which is voluntary-assisted dying,” Karen’s husband, Dean Gladigau, said.
“It very much influenced her decision. One, to obviously have control over her own destiny, and it meant that she was then able to achieve her donation to recipients.”
Brayden, Karen and Mitchell Gladigau.
Photo by
Prue Peters Photography
She forewent her opportunity for palliative care to do so.
“It’s a very, very small window when someone passes in case there’s changes and deterioration; effectively, they’ve got seven minutes,” Dean said.
Dean explained how Karen learned a little about the people who had been determined would receive her organs following the tests she was given the day before her passing.
“She knew who her organs were going to, like, not who specifically, but she knew that there were four,” he said.
“She was over the moon that night.”
Karen’s lungs, liver, and left and right kidneys were gifted to an adult male, a young adult female, a teenage girl and another young adult male, respectively.
That all took place on February 17, 2024, the day Karen crossed over.
A couple of weeks later, on March 1, Dean and his sons, Brayden and Mitchell, received a letter of thanks and condolence from Donate Life Victoria, which outlined further basic details of each of the recipients.
It gave a rundown of their conditions before their transplants, the success of each surgery, their recovery states and how Karen’s organs would change their futures.
Dean said receiving the letter was an emotional moment, but also one of pride.
“For Karen to be able to achieve what she wanted to was awesome,” he said.
“All our family knew what Karen had done or what she was doing.”
Karen’s final gifts and the conversation that ensued inspired many of the couple’s family members and friends to register as organ donors.
“It’s not spoken about a lot, so I think Karen liked the idea of doing it, but she’d be quite embarrassed about me talking about it, I think, because she’s a very private person, but I think she’d be very proud of what she achieved,” he said.
“And I’m so proud of her for doing it; my boys are so proud, and her family are extremely proud of what she was able to achieve with such a bad outcome for her.
“To deliver that, give those organs to someone else and save lives, was amazing.”
National Organ Donation Week is recognised between Sunday, July 27 and Sunday, August 3, this year.
10°C