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Accident victim gave the gift of life to others

Jesse Hollett
Posted 8/23/17

FLEMING ISLAND – Just after 10 p.m. on August 4, a 2004 GMC SUV rear-ended a 2006 Taoi Scooter on the Black Creek Bridge and dragged it until it burst into flames more than a mile away.

The …

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Accident victim gave the gift of life to others


Posted

FLEMING ISLAND – Just after 10 p.m. on August 4, a 2004 GMC SUV rear-ended a 2006 Taoi Scooter on the Black Creek Bridge and dragged it until it burst into flames more than a mile away.

The driver, 54-year-old Lisa Beverly, drove until she arrived at her home in Green Cove Springs.

Glen McDonald, 39, never arrived home that night and was left in an emergency lane on the bridge. McDonald remained on life support until his death at Orange Park Medical Center.

While the incident left McDonald dead, his death has given four others life. His loved ones say this giving, even in death, is just a continuation of his life, which he spent as a volunteer in his church and other organizations.

“He gave four people that day life,” said Karen Taylor, McDonald’s sister. “Two women came off of dialysis, a man got a heart, and another woman received his liver. He gave life to so many.”

McDonald, who was adopted into Taylor’s family when he was 18 months old, has lived with Taylor for the last 10 years. McDonald assisted her in overcoming the daily challenges of being a single mom.

Ask McDonald’s loved ones and they’ll say the world lost a servant that day.

They’ll say McDonald seemed like he had four arms at his church with the many projects he assisted and the almost boundless energy he brought to even the most menial tasks.

“Glen was always one of the first ones in line [to volunteer] over the period of time that I had a relationship with him,” said Bill Register, pastor of First Assembly Church on Fleming Island, where McDonald worshipped. “We constantly preach that our lives are in God’s hands and if we decide to walk with him he gives us a path to walk. We don’t know when the path we walk on will end. It’s sad that anybody had to die that way, that’s something nobody can explain, but there’s many times when bad things happen to good people, and we don’t have control over those things.”

McDonald is one of nearly 500 individuals to donate organs in Florida this year. However, the number pales in comparison to those in the state currently on a waiting list to receive an organ.

“It’s a tremendous gap,” said Kathleen Giery, director of Donor Program Development for LifeQuest, the organ recovery service that operates between Jacksonville and Pensacola. “An organ transplant is a lifesaving therapy for a lot of conditions – people who have cardiomyopathy, people who have cystic fibrosis…– when the only option for someone is an organ transplant, we know what will save these people’s lives, but it’s not like they can just go to the hospital and immediately get a transplant.”

LifeQuest is one of 58 separate organ transplant companies that operate within Florida. Last year, the companies recovered lifesaving organs from 921 individuals, the most donors since these records have been kept, according to Giery.

The significant uptick is due to a combination of effective education both with adults and high school students who are on their way to get their driver’s licenses, and organs recovered from fatalities related to the opioid crisis.

There are currently 5,765 individuals on a waiting list to receive organs in Florida, however.

Shortly after McDonald’s death, there were four less on that list. Still, McDonald’s loved ones are grappling with anger after the events surrounding his death. Police are still investigating as to whether alcohol or substance abuse played a role in McDonald’s death.

“There’s no closure right now,” Taylor said. “I feel like if she would have stopped the car like she should have, if she would have just stopped, then maybe he would have had a fighting chance. She just kept driving.”