October 19, 2019
Community shares grief and hope in loss of Puxico teen
PUXICO — While the Puxico community mourned the loss of high school freshman Drake Guffey and prayed for his family, they also watched as the teen’s love for others prevailed. Drake’s family decided after his death Sept. 14, to donate his organs, and specifically to offer a kidney to Matt Mitchell, 46, of Puxico...
PUXICO — While the Puxico community mourned the loss of high school freshman Drake Guffey and prayed for his family, they also watched as the teen’s love for others prevailed.
Drake’s family decided after his death Sept. 14, to donate his organs, and specifically to offer a kidney to Matt Mitchell, 46, of Puxico.
Mitchell, who had been on the transplant list three years, lives next door to the family, with his wife, Jenny, and their two sons, Micah, 19, and Jaydon, 14.
He attended a prayer vigil organized by the Puxico community shortly after Drake was injured Sept. 7 in an ATV accident. Most people in Puxico were there.
“Every time I turned around, people were raising money like a small town does,” he said.
It was a fitting tribute to the 14-year-old. His grandmother, Kathy Nelson, better known as Gig, described her only grandson as a people-person, who would “bust his back” trying to help others.
After the accident, Nelson didn’t get to see her grandson until he had been air evacuated to a Cape Girardeau hospital. He was treated and given four units of blood before being transferred to a St. Louis hospital.
In St. Louis, “I would go in frequently and rub his hand,” she said.
Nelson asked a nurse who was by his side at all times if he had been given more blood and his blood type. When the nurse said O positive, Nelson remarked of her four grandchildren, he was only one who had her blood type.
Later in the week, the doctors ordered a brain wave test, which they repeated in 12 hours. Nelson said, at that time the doctor told the family “God and Drake had decided it was time for him to go home.”
The family decided to donate his organs and when she went in to sign the papers, Nelson said, “God brought Matt Mitchell to my mind.”
The loss of her grandson was “the worse thing I have been through,” Nelson said.
Before filling out the papers, she told the transplant team about Matt and he was O positive. She messaged him.
When Mitchell learned Drake had died, he searched for his son Jaydon, who was friends with Drake.
“When I found him, Jaydon was crying. He already knew,” Mitchell said.
While hugging Jaydon, Mitchell said, “we must now pray for the family.”
His phone went off in his pocket, but he waited a few minutes to check his message. It was Drake’s grandmother saying call ASAP.
When he called to offer his condolences, he learned she wanted to confirm his blood type was the same as Drake’s. She asked if was he was on the Mid American kidney transplant list.
“Yes, I am,” he replied.
Mitchell learned the family wanted him to have Drake’s kidney.
The following Sunday, Mitchell received a message from his pre-transplant nurse who told him “be here tomorrow.”
Mitchell was at the hospital “Monday morning at 7 and I went into surgery at 5 o’clock. The transplant doctor said the kidney was working real good before he finished the surgery.”
Transplant patients usually spend seven days in the hospital, but Mitchell was released in four days. After being released, Mitchell went to a residential hotel but stayed less time than expected.
“My transplant doctor in 25 years doing these transplants said, he had never seen a direct donation,” Mitchell said.
Two matching proteins are good and usually come from a son or brother. Out of six possible proteins, his and Drake’s actually matched three.
“Went I went for my one month follow up, my numbers looked great,” he said.
While Mitchell “never lost hope” of receiving a transplant, he was “ready to get things going and get back to my life.”
“I sold cars a number of years,” he said. “When I became disabled, I returned to college at Three Rivers.”
Mitchell plans to “continue my college at TRC and transfer to SEMO and earn a master’s in business administration.”
He will continue serving on the Puxico city board as an alderman and as a guard in the VFW Post 7822 auxiliary. Mitchell attends the Greater Vision Worship Center in Puxico.
He’ll not miss undergoing dialysis, “that is awesome after three and a half years. I did it every night,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell and Nelson both said Drake was an avid hunter and fisherman. He played baseball and basketball. He loved being outdoors where he spent a lot of time
Mitchell recalls Drake’s “grin; his enchanting smile. He really was loved by the community.”
Drake had joined Future Farmer’s of America and the Friday before the accident, he had taken soybeans to the SEMO District Fair in Cape Girardeau. His grandmother reported he won a second place ribbon.
Drake’s sister Shelby emphasized, “he was loved by everyone and never met a stranger.” Drake’s parents are Jessica Fleeman and Brian Guffey.
He loved life and at 3 years old was in a tree stand hunting. At 6 years old, he killed his first deer and turkey. He was an archery hunter, as well, his family said. He liked frog gigging, and loved bass fishing and hunting ducks and doves. Drake also loved square dancing and the Puxico Homecoming.
Nelson recalls, the day Mitchell “came home from the hospital, he came to my youngest granddaughter’s game.”
Drake helped several people with his organ donation, but Nelson will see Mitchell first hand.
While organ donations have been on Mitchell’s mind a few years, Nelson said, “I never had really thought about organ donation.” Nelson said, “while our family is from the Show-Me state, we have to see it to make it real.”
Along with promoting organ donations, Mitchell has promised Nelson “a lifetime of hugs.”
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