SPOKANE, Wash - Right now, more than 100,000 people nationwide are waiting for the life-saving gift of organ donation. Through a brave decision with her family, a Spokane mom and wife's lasting legacy will be giving that gift.
It's hard to sum up a woman like Chantal Brommer. She was an accountant, a mom, a wife, a motorcycle rider - and a woman who dressed up like witches with her friends to go on adventures, like riding Lime Scooters through Riverfront Park.
"She was wild and vivacious and passionate and over the top with so many things," said her husband Nick, to whom she was married for 24 years.
In early 2020, Chantal started experiencing symptoms of what she later found out was ALS. It was a terminal diagnosis, but it did not define her.
"When we went to periodic appointments with the neurologist for the ALS, she always wore the high heels - cause she was gonna show 'em," said Nick. "Strut in with the high heels because goddamn it, this is not defining me. I'm still Chantal goddamn it."
They took vacations together and didn't stop living, but over the years, ALS started to rob Chantal of the ability to do many things on her own.
Knowing that time was coming to an end, they went on vacations and had adventures. They also had difficult discussions about what would happen after she was gone.
During her care, Nick and Chantal received a pamphlet that asked patients to think about five wishes for life after she died. Chantal was clear that she wanted to help others, and organ donation was a clear way to do that.
While they knew their time was limited, it came to an end much sooner than they thought.
In late February, Nick found Chantal unresponsive. He called 911 and gave her CPR, but they knew she would not recover.
For several days, machines kept Chantal alive at Providence Sacred Heart while LifeCenter Northwest worked with the family to determine how the organ donation process would go.
"It's a yin and yang. We're suffering a huge loss," Nick said. "But I couldn't help but think the day of the donation, there's someone, somewhere prepped for surgery - they're looking at their clock, waiting for this gift."
Six days after taking her final breath on her own, it was time.
When an organ donation patient heads to that last surgery, doctors and caregivers line the halls for an honor walk.
It's a somber, reverent moment to honor their life and their gift.
But for a woman like Chantal, somber just wouldn't do.
"When it came time, it was like - this is a celebration, this is not this heart-wrenching, sad [thing]," Nick said. "It was like - let's go out with a bang."
As caregivers began rolling Chantal's bed down the hall, the family's choice of music started to play.
It was Motley Crue's hard rocking 'Kickstart My Heart'.
The perfect tribute to a woman who loved rock and roll, as her friends 'The Witches' lined up between the doctors, fully clad in their witch hats and "F*ck ALS" t-shirts.
Just before she was brought down to surgery, a caregiver read a prepared statement that would again be read to doctors who would remove her organs for transplant.
"Accountant by day, race car driving, motorcycle riding maniac by night," the statement read. "Without her, the world is going to be less exciting. Quieter. Less passionate."
Family and friends with tears in their eyes shouted one last "F*ck ALS" and Chantal was wheeled away for surgery.
Hours later, Nick received a text from LifeCenter Northwest.
Chantal's kidneys and heart were on their way to waiting patients.
"I sort of have this scenario in my head where I meet the person that has her heart," Nick said. "And I could put my ear against their chest and listen."
"Her heart didn't stop beating," he said. "It was just put on pause. Hopefully it's now beating for someone else."
If you want to know more about organ donation and how to make sure you are on the donor list, visit LifeCenter Northwest's website at this link.
You can learn about how to become a donor and how to have conversations with your family about your wishes.
You can also read mythbuster questions about how donors and donations are treated.
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