Tracy Tenpenny was a loving, devoted husband and father with a glass-half-full approach to life. “He had one of those personalities where he was perpetually happy,” says his daughter, Lorraine.

In November 2022, while running with his wife Clare and several friends, Tracy and his friend paused to use the restroom. After an unusual amount of time had passed, his friend went to ensure Tracy was OK. To his horror, he found Tracy unconscious on the bathroom floor. He immediately began administering CPR, not realizing Tracy had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.

While all of this was going on, Clare and the other runners had chosen to take a lap around the block. On the final turn, the group noticed police cars at the scene and dread pounded through every step. “It was like a nightmare,” Clare recalls. “I knew that the longer someone is down without restarting the heart, the longer the body is without oxygen. Every second that went by, I was beside myself.” 

Tracy was rushed to the hospital, where doctors successfully restarted his heart. Thus began a roller coaster, multi-day process of trying to bring Tracy back. “We got a glimmer of hope because he was fighting the vent,” Clare says. However, conversations shifted drastically when Tracy’s brainwave test showed no activity. “At that point, you sort of switch what you’re praying for,” Clare says. “At first, you’re praying for them to come back to you … and then you switch your mindset. You start praying that God’s will be done.”

After receiving the neurological results, Tracy’s family made the courageous decision to donate Tracy’s organs, tissues and corneas. Tracy’s son, Joe, remembers the emotional shift in choosing donation. “You start thinking about the people who would receive his organs,” he says. “There was excitement, because we were building hope for the people who would receive the call in the middle of the night. There was a lot of strength that came from that.”

The Tenpennys began spreading the word to family and friends, encouraging them to attend Tracy’s honor walk before he made his lifesaving donation. To their astonishment, hundreds of people showed up to honor Tracy, lining hallway after hallway of the hospital path to the operating room. Recalling the overwhelming support from the community, Clare says, “We had the most amazing, emotional, best-ever dedication to his life. It was beautiful.” Joe echoes the meaningful final moments of his dad’s life. “It blew me away to see everyone who was supporting my dad,” he says.

In the end, Tracy donated everything he could except his heart, which will be studied by scientific researchers. “The fact that he was able to make others’ lives better by donating his organs and continue to give to the world, even in his last second, is incredible,” Lorraine says of her father’s giving spirit.

Joe agrees. “You’re losing someone you love, but you can provide the gift of life to other people. It’s powerful,” he says. “I’m so glad that something great could come from something so horrible.”

Clare echoes her children’s sentiments. “It’s awful; it’s a terrible, unfortunate thing to have to go through. But knowing the kind of person he was—who kept giving, and giving, and giving—and then his final opportunity was to give what he could of his body to help others, was amazing,” she says.

Though Clare, Joe and Lorraine miss Tracy dearly, they are grateful that his organs and tissues have helped save and heal the lives of others—something that has helped them process their loss. “I feel like it has been incredible, when it comes to the ability to heal,” Joe says. “It’s a horrible situation no matter what—you are losing the person that you love. With that said, I felt like the knowledge that there was life coming from my dad’s memory made a huge difference.”

“My dad always said, ‘You can always find several positives in any negative,’” Lorraine adds. “As horrible and unexpected of a situation that it was, knowing he saved lives and enriched so many others has been able to take that terrible negative of his passing and turn it into several positives.”

It is important to Clare to leave others with a message about the power of organ and tissue donation. “The fact that he had died—that was the sad part,” she says. “Organ donation was absolutely in no way, shape or form sad. It allowed us to find a silver lining in his passing. To be able to give that as a final gift is the most selfless thing possible.”

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.