Tuseday, dozens of families will go to bed with new hope for their sick loved ones.
It's because Mandeville parents, during their deepest time of grieving, didn't want anyone else to face the loss and difficult decision they did for their child. Now one mother tells the story to help others.
There is no doubt Cameron Greer Dice loved the outdoors. An album of his 19-year life is filled with his joy of hunting, fishing and getting muddy from ATV rides. How many young boys have a picture carrying an alligator on their shoulders as he does? He is also described as an old soul who loved 80s music and helping people.
"He loved to make everybody laugh. He would do anything," said his mother, Amy Deubler Foy.
Tens days ago, while some family members were at a St. Patrick's Day parade, he was riding his ATV with neighbors at the family camp in Franklinton, and listening to music around the bonfire. On Sunday, his mom got a phone call that she will never forget.
"He was climbing a steep ditch, and when he got to the, he was very going very slow because you can't go fast climbing that. When he got to the top, very top of the ditch, the four wheeler fell back. It flipped backwards on him, and it crushed his, it crushed his face," said Foy.
Cameron was crushed beneath. His facial bones and skull were shattered. He was airlifted to UMC in New Orleans. He had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing. His heart was restarted. He was put on a ventilator.
"Me and his dad sat Sunday night, after everybody left the hospital, and his dad said, 'I think he might already be gone.' I felt it, but I didn't want to believe it. I just prayed. I just wanted a miracle, but I think God, I think God needed him more."
Amy remembered a conversation she and Cameron had two years earlier in the DMV. Cameron was asked if he wanted to be an organ donor. Amy explained to him what that meant.
"When you do pass away, they will keep all of your, keep all of your organs alive and they will take them from you and they will give them to other people to save their lives, people that are gonna die. And he said, 'Oh yes. Definitely,'" Foy remembers.
For two more days, Amy held Cameron's hand, and stroked his hair until a team of 30 read his mom's final words in the O.R. and harvested his organs.
"I couldn't leave him. They said, 'Amy, but he's gone.' And I said, 'No, he's not. He's right here.'"
Before his funeral Saturday, four people had already been saved by Cameron's kidneys, pancreas, liver and heart. Tissues of bone, skin, arteries, muscles, tendons, helped dozens more. And other organs damaged in the accident, went to research.
"So as far as I know, 54 people have part of my baby with them," said Foy.
Amy says her Cameron is an angel in Heaven and a hero on Earth. A gold medal, and an organ donor flag that flew in his honor until every organ left the hospital, are her treasures. So is the EKG of his final heartbeats, now replicated as a painting over her mantel.
When asked if she wants to one day meet the people who were saved by Cameron's organ donations she said, " I would love that, especially the person that has his heart."
There are almost 115,000 people on the national waiting list, and 2,068 of them are in Louisiana.
Last year there were 529 organs transplanted from deceased donors and 93 transplants from living donors, in Louisiana.
Sadly, 83 people waiting in Louisiana died before getting their transplant, and another 150 became too sick to receive a transplant.
More than 2.5 million people have joined the Louisiana Donor Registry. You can get more information about donation and register as a donor at here.