Our first and only child, Christopher Louis Jones, Jr., (“Junior”) passed away in my arms at 10 days of age on July 31, 2015. Leading up to that day, doctors told us that due to his various medical issues, we would have to make some very difficult decisions about his life. We made the most difficult choice we’d ever made by deciding to turn off the machines that were keeping his body alive.
The night before Junior passed away in my arms, in the midst of our devastation, we knew that we wanted our son to serve a greater purpose. Even though his life on earth would end sooner than we ever planned, we wanted to honor his memory by doing some very impactful things that would make a huge difference in the lives of others.
Since our son was on a feeding tube and couldn’t receive my milk, I immediately made the decision to donate all of my breast milk to the Mother’s Milk Bank of Ohio. I eventually learned that I donated over 3,200 feedings worth of milk that helped babies in seven different NICUs across three different states. We also made the decision to allow our son to be an organ donor for research. Because of his medical issues, he couldn’t be a live transplant donor, however we would be able to donate his organs to research. By doing this, medical professionals would be able to use our son’s organs to help further their research of genetic abnormalities and one day save more families from going through what we lived through.
Our son may not be physically here, but he is always in our hearts. His purpose didn’t end when he passed away, it actually came alive. He continues to bring us tremendous joy and we are forever committed to making sure that his purpose of helping others is fulfilled.
Christopher Louis Jones, Sr. & Danielle Nicole Jones
Parents of Christopher Louis Jones, Jr.,
Donor for Research
