A mom finds hope after tragedy, hears her daughter’s heartbeat in a child who got a second chance. Some stories aren’t tidy. They come shattered, bloodied by what should have been, aching with what never will be again. Lisa Schein knows that kind of story.
Lisa Schein’s life changed forever on April 1, 2022, when her 8-year-old daughter, Maddy, passed away after an ATV accident. In the throes of unimaginable grief, Lisa made a courageous decision—she chose to donate Maddy’s organs, allowing her daughter’s legacy of love to live on in others.
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And one of those lives was Mireya Moody.
Just months earlier, 4-year-old Mireya had been diagnosed with left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) cardiomyopathy—a rare and serious heart condition. On January 25, 2022, her tiny body began to fail. After three weeks of treatment, she was transferred to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. The only hope for her survival was a heart transplant.
And then, on April 2nd—just hours after Maddy’s final heartbeat—God answered a mother’s whispered surrender with a miracle that beat on. Mireya’s care team at the Cleveland Clinic gently delivered the news: a donor heart had been found. A perfect match. Maddy’s heart.
Two days later, Mireya underwent an eight-hour transplant surgery. What once was failing, now flourished. Her recovery stunned the doctors.
And Maddy’s heart? Still beating.
Still loving.
Still giving.
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And in the summer of 2024, grace brought the two families face-to-face.
Mireya, now 8, thought she would get to meet Maddy. Her child-heart hadn’t yet grasped the depth of sacrifice behind that gift. When she finally realized Maddy wouldn’t be there, she did the only thing a child knows how to do when words won’t work—she hugged Lisa. Tight.
“I wanted to run up to Mireya, squeeze her, and never let her go,” Lisa confessed, “because that was all I had left of my girl,” she said.
And Maddy’s life does live on—her legacy beating steadily in four lives saved by her organ donation. Mireya is now a thriving 8-year-old, full of energy and joy. Only God could orchestrate such a story, where heartbreak turns into hope, and where a mother hears her daughter’s heart beating once more.
In the end, love always finds a way to keep going. And sometimes, it sounds just like the steady rhythm of a child’s heartbeat.
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Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
h/t: KGNS News
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/WKYC Channel 3
