‘Let your song play on.’ How an 18-year-old who died days before her wedding saved the lives of 3 fathers

IDAHO FALLS — Jordyn Wilson was days away from her wedding when her fiancé took her to urgent care in Rexburg.

It was the week of Christmas 2021. Jordyn was having trouble breathing and felt weak. The 18-year-old BYU-Idaho student and her parents, Don and Tracy Wilson, assumed it was asthma or the fact she wasn’t eating enough in preparation for the big day.

“The urgent care did some tests and said she had bronchitis,” Don Wilson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “She left and collapsed in the parking lot on the way back to the van. Her fiancé took her to the emergency room, and that’s where she lost consciousness.”

Doctors at Madison Memorial Hospital did CPR for 15 minutes and got her pulse back. Jordyn was transferred to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, and Don and Tracy, who were in southern Utah, immediately drove to Idaho Falls to be with their daughter.

When they got to the hospital, they met a nurse named Bruce Taylor.

“When we walked into her room, Jordyn was twitching, and that was a side effect of her lack of oxygen,” Don recalls. “The first thing Bruce said to me was, ‘This is concerning. This is not a good sign.’ I was trying to get information, and the one thing I remember saying to Bruce was, ‘She’s not getting married next week, is she?’ He said, ‘No, that’s not going to happen.'”

Jordyn never regained consciousness and was declared brain dead on Christmas morning.

Instead of making final preparations for a wedding, the Wilsons had to plan a funeral for their daughter, a young woman who loved music, Taylor Swift and was known as “the decider” in her family.

“I think the fact she passed on Christmas was a blessing. Jordyn loved Christmas. It was her favorite thing,” Tracy says with a smile. “She would start at the beginning of November and I would have to tell her to take it to her bedroom by the time January came around. So her passing on Christmas Day is kind of poetic. It was her holiday.”

Jordyn loved serving others. Her parents have a video of their daughter jumping out of the car while sitting in a fast-food drive-thru to pick up litter someone dropped.

When approached by hospital staff and asked if they wanted to have Jordyn’s organs donated, Don and Tracy didn’t hesitate.

“We knew who she was. She served everywhere she went. If she had the chance to help someone else’s life, she would absolutely make that decision,” Don says. “We didn’t find out until after she passed that she had checked the box (on her driver’s license) to donate.”

Jordyn was flown to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City to have her organs transplanted to waiting recipients. Her parents will never forget seeing their daughter wheeled on a gurney before the flight to Utah.

“They were leaving and that’s a very hard moment to have that elevator door close,” Tracy recalls through tears. “One of the gentlemen pushing the gurney said, ‘We’ll take good care of her.’ For a mom, hearing that made a huge difference.”

Donate Life Month

The Wilsons were back at EIRMC Friday morning for the first time since their daughter died. The hospital hosted an event with Donor Connect to kick off National Donate Life Month. A special flag was raised outside EIRMC as a chaplain prayed, and Idaho Falls Mayor Lisa Burtenshaw, whose mother received a donor heart, read a proclamation designating April as Donate Life Month.

“This is the month we set aside to recognize the miracle of organ, eye and tissue donation,” said Alex McDonald of Donnor Connect. “There are 100,000 people waiting in the US for life-saving transplants. One donor can save up to eight lives, and one tissue donor can help 75 people. It’s huge what one person can do.”

Tina Watson of Shelley spoke at the event. She is alive today because of a young woman who donated her liver and kidney 27 years ago.

“My donor, Katie, was a BYU student in Provo, Utah. She and some friends had gone skiing and while she was coming down the hill, she got caught in her skis and tripped and slid down the hill,” Watson says. “When she came to a stop, she hit a tree at the base of her skull and didn’t wake up from that moment on.”

WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH TINA WATSON

Watson was living in Idaho Falls at the time and recalls her mother getting a phone call telling her to get to Salt Lake City for surgery.

“I have now been alive longer than I was sick. That’s a whole other lifetime,” Watson says. “I have so many nieces and nephews that have been born, I’ve seen them grow, they’re going to college, they’re getting married, and it’s just amazing.”

‘Let your song play on’

Jordyn’s parents, who now live in Indiana, shared their daughter’s story to a room full of hospital workers, volunteers, friends and others. After Jordyn died, they learned Jordyn had a pre-existing condition that caused blood clots in her lungs once she started birth control medication.

She was unable to donate her lungs or heart, but her two kidneys and liver were given to others.

“We know she saved the lives of three men with 16 children between them. One of the men was already a widower, so the kids had lost their mom and were about to lose their dad. They got their dad back,” Don says. “While we are praying for a Christmas miracle, three other families were praying for a Christmas miracle as well. I’m selfish enough that I would gladly take mine over theirs, but if mine wasn’t to be, I’m so glad they got theirs.”

During the event Friday, the Wilsons were surprised as Taylor, the nurse who helped them years ago, who retired in 2022 after 23 years at EIRMC, walked into the room. Tears streamed down their faces as they hugged the man they have not seen since Jordyn was admitted to the hospital.

WATCH NURSE BRUCE TAYLOR SURPRISE THE WILSONS

“It was very overwhelming seeing him. I don’t know if I’d recognize him because he had a mask on when we were here before, but Bruce made a difference just by being compassionate. He’s part of our story,” says Tracy.

It’s a story the Wilsons are spreading as far as they can by reminding people that donating organs, tissues, and eyes saves lives.

“Because she loved music, the motto we have is, ‘Let your song play on.’ Be an organ donor,” Tracy says. “When you lose somebody, you’re going to grieve, you’re going to be sad, and their family and friends are going to remember them for their life. Through organ donation, that circle is so much larger, and your loved one is a hero to another family somewhere.

Don adds, “What do you want your loved one’s story to be? The fact that she saved three men’s lives will live on through their families for generations. That’s a good thing.”

To learn more about organ donation, click here. Watch the entire EIRMC event here.