Donate Life Month | Healthy Living with UNM Health
Kelli Ingle was a young woman of many talents – a singer, an actress, an artist.
“Kelli was the personification of joy,” said her mother, Kristi Ingle.
“She was also her father’s daughter, as a high school baseball coach,” said her father, Rick Ingle. “She loved baseball.”
At the age of 22, Kelli Ingle became a hero. Her young life was cut short in a car crash near the New Mexico-Arizona border three years ago. A year earlier, she had made the decision to become an organ donor when renewing her driver’s license. Her family honored her wish on April 5, 2022, when her organs were procured at The University of New Mexico Hospital.
“The people at UNM Hospital were so kind to let her friends and our family members come in and say goodbye to Kelli,” Kristi Ingle said.
With coordination from New Mexico Donor Services, dozens of cards were displayed in the operating room bearing information Kelli’s friends and family wanted the surgeons to know about the woman who would soon save four lives.
“Losing a child is probably one of the hardest things anyone could ever go through,” Kristi Ingle said.
The Gift of Life
On the same day, in a Denver, Colo., hospital room, 31-year-old Kristen Marshall lay in a coma in the late stages of liver failure. Her family was told she only had 24 hours left to live.
Marshall’s mother happened to attend the same Bible study group as Kristi Ingle, but never at the same time, so their paths had not crossed. Through prayer requests for both Kelli Ingle and Marshall, the Ingle family learned of Marshall’s condition and knew she would not live long without a transplant.
After Kelli Ingle was declared brain dead, Kristi Ingle started the process of designating her daughter’s liver for Marshall – an extremely rare occurrence, given that most transplants are arranged through national registries. The chances of getting Marshall an organ that matched and getting one in time were already slim.
“The day of the honor walk, the surgical nurse came to us, and she was crying,” Kristi Ingle said. “She said, ‘I don’t think Kristen is going to get Kelli’s liver.”
But perhaps it was divine intervention or maybe it was Kelli’s intervention, miraculous news came a few hours later.
“It’s a go,” Kristi Ingle said, recalling the same nurse’s enthusiastic announcement shortly before the honor walk – a UNM Hospital ritual in which providers, staff, family, and friends line the hall that connects the ICU to the operating room to pay respect to the person who made the choice to give the gift of life through organ donation.
Marshall received Kelli Ingle’s liver on April 9. The first thing she asked for when she awoke from surgery was a Dr. Pepper, Kelli’s favorite soft drink. Marshall’s parents said their daughter’s countenance had instantly changed.
“I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been,” Marshall said. “I have energy. It’s night and day.”
I have to honor her life by living my life to its fullest.
– Kristen Marshall, Kelli Ingle’s Liver Recipient
Now, exactly three years since her life-saving surgery, the procedure has given her a completely new perspective on life. “I appreciated life before, but I was kept here for a purpose,” she said. “Even if it’s for the small purpose of raising my son.”
Marshall’s son was only two at the time of her operation. Now he’s five, and Marshall’s family and the Ingles have become close friends. Through organ donation, there is purpose in the pain of loss, she said.
“I would not be here if it wasn’t for Kelli,” Marshall said. “I have to honor her life by living my life to its fullest.”
Let Life Sing
April is National Donate Life Month. This year’s theme is, “Let Life Sing,” with bird songs representing new beginnings and hope, as well as the return of loved ones through the gift of donation.
“Even though Kelli has passed, she continues to live on in other people because of her generous gift of life,” Kristi Ingle said.
In 2024, UNM Hospital supported 74 deceased donor heroes and their families, resulting in 125 lives saved. Right now, more than 400 New Mexicans are still on the wait list for a life-saving transplant.
Anyone can register to be an organ donor, no matter their age or the state of their health. They can do so any time online at www.donatelifenm.org or when they renew their driver’s license at the New Mexico Motor Vehicles Division.
“It turns the worst event that ever happens in your life, and it turns it into one of the greatest events that’s ever happened in your life,” Rick Ingle said.
“Beauty from ashes,” Kristi Ingle said.