MovieChat Forums > Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story (1999) Discussion > the real daniel huffman....

the real daniel huffman....

posted 17 years ago by Sprout7
6 replies | jump to latest

committed suicide a few years ago.

ROSSVILLE, Ill. - Daniel Huffman gave up football eight years ago when he donated a kidney to his grandmother so she could live. Now his grandmother has lost her hero.

The 25-year-old, a former Florida State employee, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head Monday at his home in central Illinois. Authorities said there was no sign of foul play.

"He was always so happy, so fun," Huffman's grandmother, Shirlee Allison, told the Chicago Tribune for today's editions. "He put a lot of joy into everyone's life. He was always doing things for you, making you feel so special."

Huffman, a defensive tackle on Rossville's high school football team, decided to put away his football gear in 1996 for his grandmother, whose diabetes left her seriously ill and in need of a kidney transplant.

His grandmother could have waited for a transplant, but Huffman, then 17, did some research and pressed doctors to allow him to be her donor.

He loved football, but the sacrifice meant he could no longer play contact sports. Huffman had the surgery before his senior year, and word spread about the boy from Rossville, a small town about 130 miles southwest of Chicago.

Florida State gave Huffman a scholarship though he couldn't play football and he later spent three years as an FSU athletic trainer, then worked in the sports information office.

Sports Illustrated did a story on him and he was honored with a Disney Wide World of Sports Spirit Award. A television movie was made about his donation: Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story, which starred Elden Henson as Daniel and Debbie Reynolds as his grandmother.

But Huffman didn't think of his donation as an act of heroism. "If you love someone and you can help them, any way you can, you're going to do it," he told the Associated Press in 1999.

Huffman moved back to Illinois in 2000 after his grandfather died to help care for his grandmother.

He worked in various security jobs, and every weekend he would visit Allison, take her shopping and do her laundry. Friends say he recently talked of completing his college degree and dreamed of someday teaching college English.

His best friend, Shaun York, discovered Huffman's body in the garage.

"There is no answer," he said. "No one knows why."

[–] maverick002121 17 years ago

I still think what he did for his Grandmother was good decision.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] marushia 16 years ago

I doubt he killed himself because he donated a kidney. Maybe his alcoholic mother (many alcoholics are simply self-medicating their own psychiatric illness) passed on a psychiatric illness to him (genetics).

Depression is a chemical imbalance, it's not based on a choice you made at 17. I might feel differently if his Grandmother had died anyway, but the fact that she lived and they still had a close relationship makes me think this was simply severe, untreated depression. Who knows what was going on in his life at the time.

I think he would have been more likely to kill himself at an even younger age had he not done it and she died. I don't think playing football would have compared to the guilt and loss he would have felt losing the most stable influence in his life.

[–] conspicuouschick 14 years ago

Rush Presbyterian Hospital never should've allowed Daniel - A MINOR - to become a donor. In fact, if you read the "Sports Illustrated" profile, you'll know they performed the surgery against his mother's wishes.

Seventeen year olds think they are immortal, lack impulse control, and possess deficiencies in long-term thinking and planning. This is not my opinion, but what the psychological literature has determined.

Some living donors suffer from depression, anxiety, anger and PTSD, regardless of how their recipient fares. While Daniel may have recovered physically from the immediate surgery, he could've been afflicted with any number of long-term donation-related problems, including hypertension, cardiac difficulties, or even severely reduced kidney function.

Since 1993, nearly 200 living kidney donors have had their remaining kidney fail, requiring their registration on the UNOS national waiting list.

To say that Daniel's suicide was unrelated to his donation is myopic. This is a young man who gave up his dream of playing football, even in a recreational sense. It is completely reasonable that the sacrifice proved too much for him to overcome.

To say that Daniel 'still made the right decision' is repugnant. No one - not his grandmother, parents, or anyone at the transplant center - had his best interest in mind. They were only concerned with 'healing' his sick grandmother, padding their success rates, earning six-figures for their time, and generating positive publicity for themselves.

Daniel's suicide is tragic. What's worse is that it could've been prevented.

www.livingdonor101.com

[–] mkahwaty-598-222111 14 years ago

To think one can recite the past and make a decision that a person's choice to donate an organ was the direct cause of their eventual death by suicide is a bit of a leap. As a brain aneurysm, brain tumor, and depression survivor, I can attest to the fact that one's mental illness is often complicated. Furthermore, when a person with a history of depression is able to do something that makes them feel good, it may be a stretch to say that the decision to donate an organ was wrong and caused their depression to lead to eventual suicide. When a person takes their life it is a tragedy, but not allowing them brief moments of being selfless that may lead to bright spots in a life of depression, is not going to make them necessarily live a longer or better life. Organ donation is a complicated issue for many due to medical, psychological, and religious beliefs. However, if a person wants to be a donor (as I do, despite my family's general rejection of the concept), is it going to make them be depressed and kill themselves in the future? Moreover, is an 18 year old any more capable psychologically than a 17 year old in making that decision? Most inarguable facts would lead to my decision that a person should be allowed to make a gift like that and future/unknown psychological problems should not be the basis for allowing that decision. Therefore, I think organ donation is a personal choice, and not one that should categorically be denied for anyone. May the world remember Daniel for his gift to his grandmother, as it was his decision to make.
At the same time, neither his grandmother or medical laws killed him or saved him from eventual demise. Some things are hard to explain, and rhetoric will never change that...

[–] 14 years ago

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