COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
"His name was Thad. Thad Allen Billings. He was born in June 1974," said Ed Billings, Thad's father.
"He was a typical young boy -- loved sports, particularly soccer and swimming."
"Just a joy to be around. He was always fun to be around. Hardly ever saw him sad about anything."
On Memorial Day weekend in 1994, Thad Billings was riding with a friend to meet his family when an accident on Interstate 26 claimed his life. He was less than a month away from his 20th birthday.
"The driver was trying to change lanes and realized at the last second that someone was already in the lane he wanted," Ed said.
When the driver tried to self-correct, he lost control. The SUV rolled over three or four times, and Thad was thrown out.
"We got a call from a passerby to let us know there had been a terrible accident. So we dropped everything and rushed to the hospital," Ed said.
It was there at the hospital that Ed and his wife found out Thad suffered massive head trauma. He was brain-dead.
"It was quite devastating," Ed said. "I mean it was quite sudden. You think about someone who was so vivacious and full of life and they're gone -- taken from you. It's virtually heartbreaking. Leaves a big hole."
While Ed and his wife tried to understand how their athletic and talented son ended up on a mechanical ventilator, a family support counselor talked to them about organ donation.
"We have to ask families, if you were on the other end and your loved one could live if they were given a heart or liver or, you could. Would you want that? Would you want someone to give it to you?" said Erika Veletto of LifePoint, a support organization for grieving families.
It's not a conversation most families are ready for, But Veletto has to talk with loved ones who are in still in shock.
"He was such a good-looking guy," Ed said of his son. "We just couldn't bear the thought of his body being mutilated. Those were the kind of images that ran through our head."
The Billings family was assured Thad's body wasn't going to be mutilated, but his organs carefully harvested.
"Most of the time when a family hears the good that can come out of something so horrible, they're inclined to do it," Billings said.
Thad's license was never recovered from the crash scene and there was no online donor registry yet, so there was no record of Thad being a donor, but Ed remembered his son's wishes.
"We told them they could use all of them that were viable," Ed said. "Both his kidneys, his heart, his liver, his pancreas, and his corneas."
"What good are they going to be in the ground when they bury you?"
It's been 18 years since Thad's death. He's saved the lives of five people and helped two people see.
"I know his organs have enabled that many people to continue to live has made the trauma a little bit easier," Ed said.
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