A grieving mother saved the lives of four people when she made the gracious decision to donate her 8-year-old daughter Maddy’s organs after she died following a 2022 ATV accident. Lisa Schein was recently reunited with a piece of her late daughter when she met the little girl who received Maddy’s heart, giving her a quality of life that had not been possible before.
In January 2022, Mireya Moody, then just 4 years old, came down with an unforeseen illness. Doctors would later diagnose her with left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy, a serious form of heart failure.
Weeks after suddenly falling ill, doctors told Mireya’s family she would need a heart transplant.
Mireya was immediately admitted to the hospital, News Channel 10 reports. After three weeks of treatment for a condition that appeared to be worsening, she was transferred to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. The only hope for Mireya was a heart transplant.
“Because donor hearts, especially those suitable for young children, are rare, patients can wait up to a year or more to receive a heart,” the Cleveland Clinic said.
‘It’s a conflicting feeling, of relief but also guilt,’ Bianca said of her daughter’s transplant.
On April 2, 2022, a day after Mandy’s ATV accident, her heart went on the donor list. Mireya’s team of doctors told her family, now at the Ronald McDonald House, that the heart was available. Two days later, she underwent an eight-hour transplant surgery.
While Mireya’s mother, Bianca, was thrilled to learn that there was a heart for her daughter, she was torn with the realization that someone else lost their child, reports the Cleveland Clinic. “It’s a conflicting feeling, of relief but also guilt,” Bianca said. “I had been praying for this day, for months. But I knew what it meant for another family.”
Lisa got to hear her daughter’s heart beating in Mireya’s body.
When then-7-year-old Mireya learned that she would meet the mother of her heart donor, her childlike assumption was that Maddy would be there as well. She thought she would be able to thank her. Once she met the family, she made the connection and hugged Lisa tightly for a while as they both cried.
“I wanted to run up to Mireya, squeeze her and never let her go because that was all I had left of my girl,” Lisa said. “Meeting Mireya’s mom, Bianca, talking with her and hearing her story about Mireya’s illness was hard, but it helps to know a piece of Maddy lives on.”
‘She’s a champ,’ Bianca said of her daughter.
During the meeting, Lisa used a special stethoscope to be able to not only hear but record Maddy’s, now Mireya’s heart beating. During the meeting, Lisa gave Mireya an avocado plushie. Bianca says Mireya sleeps with it every night and has named it Maddy.
Mireya was one of four people Maddy and Lisa saved through the donation of her organs. It’s given Mireya the opportunity to live life as an 8-year-old should. “She knows she’s a little bit different from other kids, but it doesn’t define her,” Bianca said. “She hasn’t had any major illnesses or problems to keep her from being herself. She’s a champ!”
