One day five years ago bubbly, gorgeous soccer goalie Korinne Shroyer came home from eighth grade, found her father`s revolver in his closet and fired a bullet into her skull.
This is about the lives she saved doing it.
Out of a million kids, you`d pick Korinne last to commit suicide. She was a popular kid in her class. But then she started feeling sad for no reason. Her parents took her to a therapist, who recomended Paxil. But one worry with Paxil is that it can give teenagers suicidal thoughts when they first start taking it. Korinne made it through 10 days.
The bullet tore a hole in her father, Kevin that you could drive an 18-wheeler through. Korinne was Kevin`s best friend, the kid who would rollerblade with him as he jogged for hours. "I used to run all the time," says Kevin Shroyer, 46. "I loved it because it would give me time to think. But after the suicide, thinking was the last thing I wanted to do."
Kevin and his wife, Kristie were able to think one clear and brave terrifying thought during the six days Korinne survived after the shooting. They decided to send out her organs like gifts.
Her green eyes would go in one direction, her heart another, her kidneys still another. Her two good lungs-the ones that played the saxophone went to a Gainesville, Georgia man named Len Geiger, who was so close to dying that he was practically pricing caskets.
A runner and nonsmoker, Geiger suddenly found out one day that he had genetic emphysema, and a lung transplant was his only hope for survival. He was on his fifth year on the waiting list and "life wasn`t worth living," he says, when Korinne pulled the trigger. Geiger received those two young lungs six days later in an operation at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
And thats where this story gets good....Geiger, now 48 went from 15% lung funtion to way above average for his age. He got a second wind and a second life. He was so grateful, he wrote Korinne`s parents to say thankyou. And that letter changed everybody`s lives.
Korinne`s parents wrote back, and Geiger asked to meet and next thing Geiger was was at a bittersweet gathering that became soaked with every kind of tears.
The Shroyers and their other daughter, Kolby now 16 gave Geiger a photo album of the girl whose life was now inside him. "She starts out as this beautiful baby," Geiger says. "Then she`s a little girl in a Halloween costume. Then a gorgeous teenager. And then the pictures just stop. it was the saddest thing I`ve ever experienced."
Hours later the group was was parting when Kristie said, "Len? Can I ask a favor of you?" She walked over and stood before him.
"Anything," Geiger said.
"Can I put my hands on your chest for just a second?"
And she stood there, crying as she felt her dead daughter breathe.
Kevin started to run again. And someone had a great idea. Why didn`t him and Len run together in a 8K run, together, step for for step next to each other. One man`s overflowing joy coming straight the other`s bottemless sorrow. They have since ran two other races together.
Kevin and Kristie aren`t whole yet, but they`re getting on with their lives. Gieger meanwhile, is relishing his. He met a woman named Christina, and married her and they named their first baby after Korinne....Ava Korinne. Sometimes he stares at her, awed. "I know without Korinne, I`m not here today and neither is Ava Korinne."
Sometimes life just takes your breath away, doesn`t it?
This is about the lives she saved doing it.
Out of a million kids, you`d pick Korinne last to commit suicide. She was a popular kid in her class. But then she started feeling sad for no reason. Her parents took her to a therapist, who recomended Paxil. But one worry with Paxil is that it can give teenagers suicidal thoughts when they first start taking it. Korinne made it through 10 days.
The bullet tore a hole in her father, Kevin that you could drive an 18-wheeler through. Korinne was Kevin`s best friend, the kid who would rollerblade with him as he jogged for hours. "I used to run all the time," says Kevin Shroyer, 46. "I loved it because it would give me time to think. But after the suicide, thinking was the last thing I wanted to do."
Kevin and his wife, Kristie were able to think one clear and brave terrifying thought during the six days Korinne survived after the shooting. They decided to send out her organs like gifts.
Her green eyes would go in one direction, her heart another, her kidneys still another. Her two good lungs-the ones that played the saxophone went to a Gainesville, Georgia man named Len Geiger, who was so close to dying that he was practically pricing caskets.
A runner and nonsmoker, Geiger suddenly found out one day that he had genetic emphysema, and a lung transplant was his only hope for survival. He was on his fifth year on the waiting list and "life wasn`t worth living," he says, when Korinne pulled the trigger. Geiger received those two young lungs six days later in an operation at the University of Virginia Medical Center.
And thats where this story gets good....Geiger, now 48 went from 15% lung funtion to way above average for his age. He got a second wind and a second life. He was so grateful, he wrote Korinne`s parents to say thankyou. And that letter changed everybody`s lives.
Korinne`s parents wrote back, and Geiger asked to meet and next thing Geiger was was at a bittersweet gathering that became soaked with every kind of tears.
The Shroyers and their other daughter, Kolby now 16 gave Geiger a photo album of the girl whose life was now inside him. "She starts out as this beautiful baby," Geiger says. "Then she`s a little girl in a Halloween costume. Then a gorgeous teenager. And then the pictures just stop. it was the saddest thing I`ve ever experienced."
Hours later the group was was parting when Kristie said, "Len? Can I ask a favor of you?" She walked over and stood before him.
"Anything," Geiger said.
"Can I put my hands on your chest for just a second?"
And she stood there, crying as she felt her dead daughter breathe.
Kevin started to run again. And someone had a great idea. Why didn`t him and Len run together in a 8K run, together, step for for step next to each other. One man`s overflowing joy coming straight the other`s bottemless sorrow. They have since ran two other races together.
Kevin and Kristie aren`t whole yet, but they`re getting on with their lives. Gieger meanwhile, is relishing his. He met a woman named Christina, and married her and they named their first baby after Korinne....Ava Korinne. Sometimes he stares at her, awed. "I know without Korinne, I`m not here today and neither is Ava Korinne."
Sometimes life just takes your breath away, doesn`t it?
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