A year ago, in January 2023, Lena, a young girl from Kentucky, was fighting for her life as her mother, Denise Bargo, desperately tried to revive her.
“Lena started throwing up and had a fever,” she remembers. “She went limp in my arms, and I gave her CPR. I gave her breath to Corbin Hospital. I never stopped breathing for my baby.”
From Corbin, the child was flown to the Hospital of the University of Kentucky, where surgeons were waiting for her. Sadly, she was declared brain-dead on January 13. A shunt that was supposed to drain fluid from Lena’s brain had shattered, shattering her mother’s dream of ever holding her child again.
A sad goodbye for Lena
Denise says doctors had just told her to let Lena go when her son, Cody Taylor, suggested they make her an organ donor. A video shows a profoundly emotional moment as Lena is given a walk of honor. Hospital staff stood silently in the hallway as Lena was wheeled into the operating room for organ recovery. Denise was in the bed with Lena, holding her closely the entire way.
As the lights were dimming for Lena, the clock was also ticking for baby Mark — born with a heart defect. His mother, Patience Clouse, had been told the only salvation for Mark was a new heart.
“His left side of his heart did not grow properly,” Clouse said, saying Mark lived in a limbo between life and death at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “He made it to about Christmas, and he started deteriorating.”
Lena’s heart became Mark’s lifeline in a bitter-sweet twist of fate. “Two transplant team doctors came in and said: ‘There’s a heart available,'” Clouse said. “I was speechless.”
A new lease of life for Mark
On the same day Lena was taken to the operating room, the hospital’s staff had another walk of honor for Mark. He was going to get a heart transplant — from Lena.
“It was a beautiful ceremony, knowing that Lena was going to live on,” Denise said. “She was going to be still living through baby Mark.”
Lena’s other organs were also given to other recipients. Her liver was donated to an 8-month-old baby and her kidneys to a 44-year-old man. And since Lena Skye donated her organs, she will have a plaque honoring her at the University of Kentucky’s Hospital.
Denise hears Lena’s heartbeat again as she meets Mark
Denise Bargo and her husband, Johnny, met Mark for the first time on September 14, 2023 — eight months later. Denise had found out that Lena’s heart had gone to Mark when her niece stumbled upon Patience Clouse’s post on Facebook saying Mark Clouse Jr. would be receiving a heart at the University of Kentucky’s Hospital.
Denise reached out to Patience and agreed to let her and her husband meet Mark.
“I got to hold him and listen to baby Lena’s little heart,” Denise said. “It’s a precious gift to know that my baby’s still alive. Mark is alive because of Lena, but Lena’s heart is beating because of Mark.”
They have visited Mark three times, and Patience calls them Mark’s godparents. “We’re all one big family now,” Denise said.
Lena Skye also saves her mother
As the family was waiting for the doctor’s report on Lena, Denise began having chest pains. One of Lena’s nurses asked another team to check on her, and Denise was told to see a blood specialist. She was diagnosed with cancer and is now undergoing treatment.
“They sent me to the ER, and that’s when we found out that I have chronic myeloid leukemia,” she said. “It’s in remission, but I still get tired, and I still worry about it.”
A message from Mom and Dad
Shunts don’t last forever, and according to the Hydrocephalus Association, 40 percent of shunts malfunction within the first two years of placement. Denise and Johnny urge people to know more about shunts, their work, and the signs of a shunt malfunction.
