Fifteen-year-old Ben Shaw donated his organs after a tragic accident. Five years later his liver donation is giving Harper Loadsman life and his dad Scott hope.
Photos of Benjamin Shaw are displayed in the Loadsman family's Cairns home as if he's a cherished part of the clan — but they never met the larrikin teenager who died five years ago."He lives inside of you," Harper's mum Jana Loadsman says.
For Mr Shaw, the knowledge that his son's liver saved Harper's life has helped him through the darkest of days without his beloved only child. When doctors confirmed their worst fears later that week, it was not a difficult choice for Ben's parents to donate their son's organs.Without finishing the sentence, they both knew what they wanted to do without any discussion.Later that day, after getting "the call" for Harper's transplant, as the Loadsmans drove into Brisbane from their then home at Cabarita, in northern NSW, they were greeted by a sky lit up with fireworks.
Then, holding Ben's hand one last time, he walked beside his son's bed as it was wheeled down the corridor towards the double doors of the Queensland Children's Hospital operating suites.But as the fifth anniversary of Ben's death nears, Mr Shaw prefers to focus on his last memory of his son as "a functioning human being".
On the other side of town, at the QCH, Harper was beginning her long recovery from the liver transplant that would see her in and out of hospital for months.Her mum chronicles her journey on the Hope for Harper Facebook page and through "a friend of a friend", Mr Shaw serendipitously learned of the little girl who received a liver transplant in the same hospital and on the same day his son became a donor.
"It's only recently Scott actually said: 'You've got to stop grieving for us. You've got to let this go, Jana,'" Ms Loadsman says.Scott says Ben was his "miracle".
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