When you check the box to become an organ donor on your driver’s license, it may feel like a small decision. But many people don’t realize how many lives can be saved or transformed through organ, eye and tissue donation.
Dylan Wormsbaker was known for his loyalty, his love for adventure and the way he cared for those around him.
“Dylan's my son,” said his father, Curtis Wormsbaker. “He loves his friends. He's very, very devoted. He liked cars, he liked dirt bikes. He was a good boy raising up. He was a great kid. He just loved life.”
One of Dylan’s favorite things was riding motorcycles, something he had done since he was young. Curtis said that passion ultimately led his son to make a life-changing decision.
“And he said, ‘You know, I'm going to ride bikes, so I want to be a donor,’” Curtis recalled. “I told him, ‘Put some thought in it, you know, what you want to do.’ And he put some thought in it, and he came back the next day and said, ‘Yeah, I want to be a donor.’ And I said, ‘Okay, that's a smart move.’”
No one imagined how soon that decision would matter.
Last spring, after a long winter, Dylan took his motorcycle out for a ride. Not long after, Curtis received a call from one of Dylan’s employees.
“They were life flighting Dylan,” he said. “I called my wife and I said, ‘We’ve got to go to Idaho Falls. Dylan’s been in an accident.’ We didn't know at this time how bad it was.”
Dylan had been flown to HCA Healthcare’s Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, where doctors did everything they could.
“We got there as quickly as we could,” Curtis said. “And that's when they told us he had a massive brain injury.”
Doctors explained that Dylan would never wake up. Over the next several days, his parents, Curtis and Kim, stayed by his side as they prepared to say goodbye. In their darkest hours, they found unexpected support in a nurse named Max Fransen.
“First day of my round I get in and they tell me, ‘Hey, we’ve got a super, super tough situation,’” Fransen recalled. “And then I walked in and that’s when I met the Wormsbakers. I think I was their most consistent face.”
Curtis remembers how Max stood with the family through every moment.
“He had watched me cry for my son, hold him, talk to him,” Curtis said. “He’d let me know that I need to probably get some rest.”
“We just instantly clicked,” Fransen said.
As the time approached for Dylan’s organ donation, DonorConnect coordinated the process.
“DonorConnect came to us and said, ‘Okay, we’ve got everything set up,’” Curtis said.
Max stayed with Dylan through the final walk to the operating room.
“I had my wife with me. I had my family with me. I had Max with my son,” Curtis said. “I felt at that time, you know, like my friend is with my son. And everything’s going to be okay.”
Fransen said it was an honor to accompany Dylan in those final moments.
“It was pretty special,” he said. “An honor for me to have been there the whole time and to be the one that was able to be with him in the end.”
Kim said she wished those last moments could have lasted longer.
“I wish the walk would have been longer,” she said. “That one week didn't seem like enough time.”
In the days that followed, the Wormsbakers began receiving updates about Dylan’s recipients.
“We start hearing that the heart donor survived, the lung donor survived, the kidney survived… and then just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” Curtis said.
Fransen added, “I don't even remember how many people Dylan helped. I know it was over 100.”
Through major organs, skin grafts, bone grafts and other tissues, Dylan helped well over 100 people — a number that stunned even his family.
“From one act of putting his name down as a donor. I mean, that's…that's insane, really,” Curtis said.
Kim said her son’s decision reflected who he had always been.
“That was the type of loyalty and friendship that Dylan had throughout his whole entire life,” she said.
Curtis now shares that legacy with Dylan’s young son.
“I told my grandson — and I'll continue to tell him — his dad is a hero,” he said.
Fransen echoed that sentiment.
“How much difference was made in the world from one guy?” he said.
Kim added, “To be able to share that healthy young man with everybody and anybody… it’s our duty.”
In grief, the Wormsbakers found strength in the impact of Dylan’s choice. His final act gave others a second chance at life.
“What an honor… what an honor for my son,” Curtis said. “He was incredible in life, and he persists to be incredible in death.”