April is National Donate Life Month and 69 News is once again proud to partner with the Gift of Life organization to bring you stories of how organ donation has impacted people in our community.<\/p>\n
A devoted father from Berks County whose life was cut way too short was able to help others after his family, in honor of him, decided to donate his organs.<\/p>\n
Jordan Blankenbiller was really loved by a lot of people.<\/p>\n
“He lived in the moment, and very happy and very, very goofy. He’d walk into a room and everyone would light up,” said his sister, Nicole Strauss.<\/p>\n
And he was a devoted dad to his son, Charlie.<\/p>\n
“When they were together, they always did everything. He could get on the floor and play,” said Jordan’s mother, Susan Blankenbiller.<\/p>\n
They miss him more than words.<\/p>\n
“11 years, it’s still really hard,” said Strauss.<\/p>\n
On April 7, 2015, “he called me at 3 in the morning and he was crying and said he had the worst headache he ever has and we called the ambulance,” said Blankenbiller.<\/p>\n
Jordan suffered a brain aneurysm. He was three weeks shy of his 32nd birthday.<\/p>\n
“The last thing he said to me was, he said, ‘kiss Charlie for me,’ and that’s the last thing he said,” said Blankenbiller.<\/p>\n
Jordan was being kept alive by life support. Doctors said there was nothing they could do. His family was asked if they would be willing to donate his organs.<\/p>\n
His mother said, “I absolutely know that was something he would do.”<\/p>\n
So, they did.<\/p>\n
“I did get a letter from one of the recipients aunts, and I wrote back, and told her everything I could about Jordan,” said Blankenbiller. “I have like five pages of stuff and she wrote the sweetest letter to me.”<\/p>\n
That recipient was a young single mom; Jordan’s gift of life bought her a few more years with her children. One of his kidneys helped save a man in his 50’s. Parts of his heart went to a young boy.<\/p>\n
“That was the one that really stuck out to me just because Jordan was such a kid at heart,” said Strauss. “For a kid to get part of him, that’s pretty cool.”<\/p>\n
As for Jordan’s son, he is now a teenager having to go through life without his dad. But his family keeps Jordan’s memory alive…<\/p>\n
“He’s Charlie’s superhero and the fact that he was able to save other people’s lives, that helps us a lot,” said Strauss. “It’s kind of moving and healing.”<\/p>\n
“Knowing that part of him is still on earth, and it’s working, it’s living, it’s breathing in part of another person that can be alive here, makes a big difference, and it’s because of him,” said Blankenbiller.<\/p>\n