Q.C. woman’s daughter’s organs saved 5 people

Suzi Austin didn’t know what to say when she finally picked up the phone and called Micki Adams.

So the Queen Creek mother said the first thing that came to mind:

“I’m your liver’s mom.”

Austin’s teenage daughter, Kourtney Butler, died in a car crash in April 2006 — and on Wednesday the anxious mom finally came face to face with the 65-year-old woman who received her daughter’s liver in an organ transplant.

“It’s just so incredible to me that out of something so devastating to us like losing Kourtney, so many people got to live,” Austin said to Adams, who is one of five recipients of Kourtney’s organs.

The two women sat side-by-side on a sofa at the Arizona Transplant House Foundation in Scottsdale, a charity home through Mayo Clinic that cares for those who have received or are about to receive organ transplants.

Sometimes the two shared smiles, and occasionally their voices trembled and eyes filled with tears.

“It’s a mixed emotion for me,” Adams said. “I know they lost a daughter for me to have a life, and that’s tough.”

Adams, who lives in Tucson, reached out to Austin in a letter written one year after the transplant surgery that saved her from hepatitis C. And another year later, the note was approved by the Donor Network of Arizona and landed in Austin’s mailbox.

“At first I was afraid to open it,” Austin said. “(But) I wanted to be able to meet the people.”

And it was scary for Adams, too.

“You’re writing from two aspects knowing that they lost somebody and you’re alive ... just the fact that I know somebody had to die for me to live,” Adams said.

But on Wednesday, the meeting brought peace to both women. Austin shared photos and stories of her bright, energetic 17-year-old who went by the name “Kour” and liked Doritos and mayonnaise sandwiches, while Adams talked about the moment she learned she’d have a new chance at life.

And the two shared something else as well —— they both battled hepatitis C.

Austin said she has been in remission for nearly two years, but that her struggles with the disease caused her daughter to want to become an organ donor .

While Kourtney’s organs went to four other people, Austin hasn’t heard from any of the other recipients yet. She said she hopes to someday meet every one of them to see how her daughter is living on.

“(Paramedics) did everything they could to get her back,” Austin said to Adams with tears in her eyes. “We didn’t really get her back — but through you we have.”