It’s been five years since 11-year-old Takiya Holmes was shot in the head while sitting in a car outside of the same cleaners in Chicago where her mom worked. But that’s not the end of her story.
Holmes never regained consciousness and passed away in her mother’s arms at the University of Chicago Medicine’s Comer Children’s Hospital on that year’s Valentine’s Day.
Despite the pain and anguish of losing a child to senseless violence, Takiya’s family did the unthinkable: they saved the lives of EIGHT people by donating her organs to those in need.
Little Takiya Holmes was shot in the right temple last Saturday as she sat in a van with her family during a gang fight over drug-dealing territory, police said.
Even though she was pronounced dead on a Tuesday in 2017, she was kept on life support so that her organs could be donated.
“Well my baby is officially gone,” her heartbroken mother, Naikeeia Williams, wrote on Facebook. “But she saved [eight] lives with her organs.”
One of those lives was her cousin, Darvece Monson, who suffered from chronic kidney disease, a longstanding disease of the kidneys that leads to renal failure. Monson found out that Takiya’s kidney was a perfect match. She had waited over two years for a kidney donation.
The average organ recipient is on the wait list for a transplant for 3 to 5 years. Nationally, more than 121,650 people are currently waiting for life-saving transplants. Of this number, 100,791 await kidney transplants, according to the National Kidney Foundation. However, many of the recipients of Takiya’s organs waited only months.
After being diagnosed with the disease, Monson founded More Than Your Kidneys, a non-profit focusing on inspiring and empowering the lives of patients and family members affected by chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal disease, those going through dialysis and kidney transplantation, she said.
“After tirelessly enduring judgment, lack of understanding, scarcity of resources, and ignorance from society, Darvece emerged into her life assigned role of an advocate and health promoter dedicated to helping patients and their families cope with the realities of CKD/ESRD/Dialysis/Transplantation,” Monson wrote on the organization’s website.
Monson took to social media to share her feelings on the transplant, which she regarded as a “gift of life” from her young cousin.
“I’m still in a state of shock and am just grateful!!!!!” she posted on Facebook.
The welcomed transplant also came with sorrow, she noted.
“I’ve always believed in the power of Faith & mind over matter but the facts remain that I have the kidney of an 11 year old dead, beautiful, intelligent, selfless girl in my body who had her entire life ahead of her,” Monson wrote on Facebook. “The facts still remain that a young black man has ruined his life and subscribed to a life of disregard of human life and has an extensive record that goes back to his juvenile years.”
Takiya’s death is one of four youth, including a two-year-old, who died from gunshot wounds that weekend. Parents, community members and leaders are gathering together now to see what can be done about the violence in Chicago.
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