'I took that picture and I put it on T-shirts with the words 'Don't break the circle of life, support organ and tissue donation,'' McMahon recalled.įor the next years, McMahon organized and paid for an annual Pensacola paddle out event to raise awareness about organ donation. McMahon's advocacy work promoting the importance of people signing up to be organ donors really began when someone took a photo of the surfers, all in a circle out in the water, while they memorialized her son. The event consisted of about 30 people paddling out into the Gulf of Mexico, floating in a circle on surfboards while holding hands and dropping flower petals into the waves. William was a surfer, and his friends held a memorial 'paddle out' in his memory after he died. 'After he passed away, I had to believe that there was a reason we were given five more months,' McMahon said, explaining that her son's death pushed her into advocacy work. In that case, doctors weren't able to find a transplant in time. He received a successful liver transplant the following day at the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville.īut five months later, the family learned that William needed another liver. 1, 2005, the family learned that doctors had found a liver to transplant into William's body. 'Liver failure can happen like that,' McMahon said, snapping her fingers. The teen was diagnosed with unexplained liver failure and became ill so quickly that he went into a coma and was on life support by Dec.

We have no history of liver problems in the family,' McMahon said. The doctors said William needed an immediate liver transplant. He didn't have any other symptoms for them to be looking at anything else,' McMahon said. 'They treated him for the flu for a day over at Sacred Heart. After his symptoms persisted for more than a week, he was hospitalized. During winter break, he developed flu-like systems in the first few days after Christmas. In 2004, William McMahon was a 16-year-old student enrolled in the international baccalaureate program at Pensacola High School. 'It is very exciting.' Tragedy shocks familyįor McMahon, organ donation has been close to her heart for a long time, going back more than 16 years to when her son, William, was alive. 'Of the 18, of course, I am the tissue recipient, and then there is a liver and a heart recipient and all different kind of things recipients who will be there with me,' McMahon said, of her fellow float riders. That qualified McMahon to rode on the Donate Life float. 'So coming out of it, because I have been advocating for so long, that was honestly one of my first questions: 'Am I a recipient?''ĭoctors told her that, yes, they had used donated bone to help repair her spine. 'Going in, I knew there was the possibility that they would use donor bone if they found that they needed it,' she recalled. Surgeons removed pieces of her lower spine and replaced them with a donor's bone. The only people who are eligible to ride the float are recipients of donated organs or tissue, and McMahon had not needed nor had a transplant.Īfter developing spinal stenosis, McMahon underwent spinal fusion surgery March 4. In case you missed it: Pensacola woman donates kidney to the same man her late husband did 16 years laterĮvery year, McMahon has had the same answer: advocacy work does not get you on the Donate Life float. 'And pretty much all these years, every year because I have done so much, I've had people contact me and say, 'I saw the Donate Life float, why weren't you on it?''Ĭhristmas miracle: Epps Christian Center mortgage paid off thanks to latest donation 'I've been doing this for a long time,' McMahon said, about her advocacy work. McMahon, an international flight attendant, has been a staunch supporter of organ donation and has worked to raise awareness about the importance of becoming a donor ever since her son died of liver failure in 2005. Kim McMahon, 64, has been selected as one of 18 people to ride on Donate Life's 2022 Rose Parade float prior to the big football game on New Year's Day in Pasadena, California. View Gallery: Pensacola transplant recipient to ride on Rose Bowl Parade floatĪfter 16 years of advocating for the importance of organ donation, a Pensacola woman is finally getting the chance to ride on the Donate Life float at the Rose Parade.

Donate life rose parade float 2022