A year ago Easter Sunday, the parents of Coralynn “Cora” Sobolik kissed their 22-month-old daughter goodbye as family and nurses sang ‘Amazing Grace’ and wheeled her bed down the hallway where she would donate her organs. The emotional moment was caught on video and shared by Cora’s parents to honor their little angel.
The day before, doctors had declared Cora brain dead after suffering complications from the parainfluenza virus.
As you can see in the heart-wrenching video, hospital staff and family lined up and down the hallway to pay tribute to the little girl who was on her way to save lives in her tragic death.
“You get to save three people,” the mother whispered to her daughter. “I love you forever.”
It all seemed like a nightmare. They had taken their 22-month-old daughter to the hospital when she started having breathing problems. Somehow, Cora had contracted the parainfluenza virus.
Doctors decided to transfer Cora to the Mayo Clinic Hospital. But on the way there, the unthinkable happened.
As doctors sedated and intubated Cora for the trip, the little girl’s heart suddenly stopped. It took 25 minutes of CPR to stabilize her. By then, her brain had suffered irreparable damage.
Cora’s brain continued to swell until doctors finally declared her brain dead.
The news devastated Meagan and Paul Sobolik.
“Our daughter was absolutely the world to us,” they said. “She was such a happy little girl and always laughing – her laugh was infectious.”
With no chance of recovery, they made the difficult decision to say goodbye. And while the heartbroken parents would give anything to have their daughter back, they found comfort in knowing their little girl would be donating her organs so others could live.
“There is now no chance of our little girl recovering,” Meagan wrote on Facebook. “But she is still with us and is in the process of organ donation. She became an angel today but tomorrow… she will go into surgery and become a superhero and give the wonderful gift of life to up to 8 different people that are in desperate need of these organs. We have tonight to be with Cora and will give her the most love we have ever given her yet.”
God bless this little girl. She is now in the arms of Jesus. Please pray for this family as they try to go on after such a tragic loss.
