Mother Protests Pauper Burial for Organ Donor

Susan Sutton’s heart offered extended life to an Oklahoma City man, her liver was donated to a patient in Pennsylvania and her corneas went to Texas for eye transplants.

Her bones will be used for reconstructive surgery and some of her skin will provide grafts for victims of burns.

The rest of her body was buried today in an unmarked grave.

Her welfare mother, Judy Sutton, said it isn’t right that her 27-year-old daughter, who died Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, should be buried in a pine box without a marker because her family cannot pay for anything better.

“She gave life to two different people and she gave sight to another one, and this is so wrong,” the mother said.

Sutton said officials at Hillcrest Health Center who obtained permission for organ removal told her that “everything would be taken care of.” She believed that would include funeral and burial expenses.

Hospital spokeswoman Janet Sellers said the statement meant only that the family would not be charged for the organ removals.

Kevin Stump, procurement coordinator for the Oklahoma Organ Sharing Network, said federal law prohibits financial help with such costs, which would be interpreted as “buying and selling of organs.”