2022 Scholarship Winner – Reid Frame

June 28, 2022

Indiana Donor Network Foundation

Reid Frame’s younger sister, Quinn, was born with hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain which causes brain damage. She struggled with fine motor skills, couldn’t walk independently, was nonverbal and needed assistance with the activities of daily living.

 

In 2021, Frame came home from school to learn her sister had been rushed to the hospital because her heart had stopped while she was sleeping. Quinn was transported to an Indianapolis hospital but was declared brain dead. While in the room with her sister, Frame watched the nurse taking care of Quinn. Even though Quinn couldn’t feel things, the nurse was gentle with her and treated her with care and respect.

Frame’s parents talked with her about plans to donate Quinn’s organs. “They wanted something out of this tragedy that could provide some meaning,” she said. Herself a registered organ donor, Frame knew her parent’s decision was the right one.

One of her sister’s kidneys saved the life of a friend of Frame’s grandmother.

“After the decision was made, my grandmother woke up in the middle of the night thinking about her friend on the waiting list,” Frame said. “She called my parents and asked them to consider her friend as a recipient. My mom was with Quinn and just before that phone call was praying for the people who would receive Quinn’s donations. When she heard grandma’s request, she said, ‘What are the chances?’”

Quinn’s kidney was a match and the transplant was successful. Quinn’s other organs – a kidney, liver and heart – saved the lives of three people while her lungs were donated for research.

“Quinn lives on and brings meaning and comfort to the loss our family has experienced,” Frame said.

Frame plans on continuing her “sisterly instincts” and helping those with special needs – like Quinn’s nurse did for her.

“I remember driving to school the next day after the donation, I realized what an impact our loss was to us and what it would mean for people waiting for their lives to be saved,” she said. “I remembered watching the nurse care for my sister. It all really affected me. That’s when I realized that I wanted to study nursing and one-day work at a children’s hospital.”

Frame, 18, of South Bend, Indiana, plans to attend Taylor University or Grace College to study nursing. She’s currently working part-time at A Rosie Place for Children in South Bend, a licensed, nonprofit specialty hospital in Indiana exclusively for children who are medically fragile.

 

Read about the other 2022 Scholarship winners here.

<- Back to Newsroom