Organ donor to be honored at Rose Parade

SUNNYSIDE, Yakima County — Parents love talking about their kids. John and Daria Miller are no exception.

They talk about BJ's sports, girlfriends and dreams. They've always talked about him, even after he died in a car crash about a year ago. It makes them feel better.

But now they also speak about BJ's corneas, liver, pancreas and kidneys — organs that live on, giving life to five others.

"Our son's still alive," John Miller said.

Those donations have earned BJ's memory a place in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena, Calif., and his parents another chance to talk about their only child to a national audience.

BJ will be one of 34 organ donors featured in floragraphs — portraits painted with flower and plant parts — on a parade float honoring organ donation.

"He was a star in his life and a star in his passing," said Julie Monica, a spokeswoman for Living Legacy, an educational arm of LifeCenter Northwest, a Seattle-based organ-procurement agency that arranged the donation of BJ's organs.

He was popular, likable and captain of the Sunnyside High School football team. He was an above-average student, enrolled in classes at Yakima Valley Community College and working at a clothing store in the Yakima Valley Mall.

Since BJ's death on Oct. 12, 2007 — three days short of his 19th birthday — the Millers have found purpose in the ashes of their tragedy by becoming vocal advocates for organ donation.

They speak to community groups, schools and the news media. Their pictures hang on the wall in Seattle's Harborview Medical Center's transplant unit. They even plan to start lobbying lawmakers.

"We preach organ donation," John Miller said. "Boy, oh, boy, we preach organ donation."

BJ was returning home from visiting a friend in the Tri-Cities on that October day.

He had just passed a semi on Interstate 82 east of Prosser about 11 a.m. when he lost control and rolled his pickup several times. No other vehicles were hit.

He suffered severe head injuries and never regained consciousness. He was taken to Prosser Memorial Hospital, then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center.

Doctors tried surgery, but warned his parents that his chances were slim.

That's when counselors from LifeCenter Northwest asked them to consider donating his organs.

"John said 'yes,' right away," Daria recalled.

BJ's organs were donated to five others, three of them in lifesaving operations.

The Millers know little about the recipients of BJ's organs. Through LifeCenter counselors, they've gotten two letters of thanks.

The Millers will go to Pasadena to watch the parade from the grandstands on Jan. 1.