She found solace in donating son's organs

As Oscar Veliz lay on life support last year, his mother, Yolany Veliz, made a heart-wrenching decision.

"The doctors said he would be living on machines for all his life," said the Hempstead woman, whose 16-year-old son was struck Oct. 18 by a hit-and-run driver while riding a bike home from a friend's house. "I didn't want that for my boy."

The driver who hit him was never caught.

So on Oct. 20, Veliz, 38, signed the papers allowing doctors to take her son off life support and transplant his vital organs to five people who desperately needed them, including a family friend who was waiting for a kidney.

Veliz, who is originally from Honduras, said it was tough to imagine giving any part of her son away, but she knew that Oscar, a boy who had always taken in stray dogs, would want her to donate his organs.

"It was very hard for me, because it was my son," Veliz said, pausing for several seconds to compose herself. "But I knew he would be at peace knowing that we tried to do something good."

Now Veliz says she is devoting herself to increasing awareness about organ donation, and finding her son's killer.

In the greater New York City area there are more than 8,000 people waiting for organ transplants -- mostly for kidneys, livers and hearts, according to the New York Organ Donor Network. But only 18 percent of adult New Yorkers are registered organ donors.

Oscar was hit as he rode a friend's bicycle south on Clinton Street in Hempstead, police said. He was headed home from the rehearsal for a friend's Sweet 16 party, where he was practicing a dance with one of the honored guests, his mother said.

Several people saw the crash, but no one identified the driver, said Veliz's lawyer, Mitchel Weiss of Manhattan. The suspect, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and driving a gold or tan Toyota Camry made between 1997 and 2001, sped away with Oscar's bike still wedged under his car, police said.

Veliz, who has an older son, Carlos, 19, said that by the time she got to the crash scene near Webb Avenue, all that was left in the road were Oscar's shoes, which had been knocked off by the force of the impact.

"I knew then that it was very, very bad," Veliz said.

Julia Rivera, a spokeswoman for the New York Organ Donor Network, said even at one of the most difficult times of their lives, people who have suffered a loss can be moved to help others.

"When it is a child who dies, it's a very hard process," Rivera said. "But sometimes parents will consent to donations because it gives meaning in a tragedy that they can give life to someone else."

As Oscar lay in the hospital, Veliz said she had no idea that miles away in Inwood, Mike Cernam, 28, whose father is friends with Oscar's father, was in need of a kidney. Cernam had been on dialysis for 10 months, since his kidneys shut down. Because Cernam, who had suffered from juvenile diabetes, is a family friend, Veliz has known he was a recipient. The other organ recipients have not been identified to her.

Cernam's father called him in the pre-dawn hours the day after Oscar was struck and asked his son his blood type, Mike Cernam said. It was A-positive, just like Oscar's.

"The way it happened was really a miracle," he said.

The New York Organ Donor Network said Oscar's left kidney went to Cernam at the request of the Velez family. His right kidney and pancreas went to a 38-year-old man, his liver was donated to a 52-year-old man, his heart was given to a 17-year-old girl, and his left lung went to a 65-year-old man.

Veliz said she hopes to eventually meet all the people whose lives were saved by Oscar's organs, but for now the only recipient she knows is Cernam. She says she takes solace in seeing him thrive, and knowing that a part of her son lives on in Cernam.

Veliz said she will not rest until police find Oscar's killer.

She has recently added $5,000 to the $5,000 that police had offered for information leading to an arrest.

"I don't hate him," she says of the person who did it. "But I have to show my son that I will hold someone responsible for what happened to him."

TRANSPLANTS NATIONWIDE

113,075 patients are waiting for an organ transplant.

26,245 transplants were done from January to November last year.

12,957 people donated at least one organ between January and November last year.

18 people die each day waiting for a vital organ — such as a heart, liver, kidney, pancreas or lung — or bone marrow.

Source: Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network