Chad Knauer was the kind of person who could make friends with anyone. His wife, Megan, remembers a time they flew to California to pick up a semi and drive it back to Wisconsin, where they owned a trucking business. As they picked up their bags in the airport, someone approached Chad who remembered traveling with him on the highway 10 years before, talking on their CB radios the entire time. “He was literally known coast to coast,” Megan says. “If you met him, you’d never forget him. Everybody loved him; he made friends with everybody.”
When they first started dating, Chad admitted to Megan that he made some mistakes earlier in his life but was determined to put them behind him and move forward. “About a year into our relationship, we got to talking about death,” she says. “He told me he’d messed up a lot but if he can make it up in any way possible, that he was going to do it through organ and tissue donation. He wanted to do something good that couldn’t be taken away.”
What Megan and Chad never could have expected was that, a few years later, Chad would lose his life in a tragic accident. At the hospital, the nursing staff asked Megan if he was a registered organ and tissue donor and explained that they had a short amount of time to time to start the process. “Every single one of them explained everything,” she says. “They took the time to acknowledge how difficult the decision was, but how great it was. That’s when I knew I made the right decision.”
Because of the nature of his accident, Chad was unable to donate his organs, but did donate his tissues to more than 300 people. “I was bawling when I read the letter; I was so overwhelmed knowing that I made the right call and he did something fantastic,” Megan says.
Since Chad’s passing, Megan’s family have become ardent supporters of organ and tissue donation, joining the registry and sharing their wishes with their loved ones. “My aunt went and got her license redone the other day. She called me up and let me know that she’s now an organ donor,” Megan says. “We cried; there were a lot of emotions out of it. She said she wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t seen everything good that came out of Chad.”
Today, Megan is proud of Chad and hopes that as their children grow up, they will come to understand the impact of their dad’s gift. “It was so rewarding seeing their faces when I explained it and told them everything about it. They were like, ‘Yeah, Dad’s a superhero,’” she says.
Every 10 minutes, someone is added to the organ transplant waiting list.
Approximately 113,000 men, women, and children are waiting for life-saving organ transplants. One organ donor has the power to save up to eight lives and change the outcomes of someone’s world forever by giving them a second chance. Additionally, tissue donation can save and improve the lives of up to 75 people with their gifts. You can make a huge impact by registering as an organ and tissue donor.
Learn more about organ and tissue donation, or register as a donor at https://donatelifewisconsin.org.