Cornea and tissue donation helps define legacy of New Berlin teen killed in 2017 crash
Steven Spearie Staff Writer @stevenspearie
Nov 24, 2018 at 5:01 PM Dec 21, 2018 at 11:25 PM
Jim Allmon said he braced himself for what was sure to be the toughest conversation he would ever have with his wife, Courtney.
It was just an hour or so after Allmon had gotten word that his 16-year-old stepdaughter, Madeline "Maddie" Finch, a junior at New Berlin High School, had been killed earlier that morning when the car she was driving crossed the center line of Illinois 125 west of Pleasant Plains and collided with a tractor-trailer head on.
Allmon had been involved with hundreds of these calls as the Sangamon County coroner's chief deputy. Now he was on the receiving end of it.
In the emotionally tense aftermath, Allmon placed a call to Roy Mayfield, the manager of tissue recovery services at Gift of Hope. Was the time frame, Allmon asked Mayfield, still conducive for Maddie to be a tissue and cornea donor?
Mayfield answered affirmatively.
After calls to Gift of Hope's hotline and Saving Sight, an eye bank, Allmon headed in to talk with Courtney.
"I remember, 'How am I going to bring this up (to her)?" recalled Allmon. "I just came out and said, 'I think there may be an opportunity here to help.' I didn't get any adverse reaction at all. She said 'yes' almost immediately."
More than a year and a half since the crash, Maddie's donations have helped nearly 70 people.
The corneas have given sight to two people, including a 5-year-old girl in New York state.
"That's the one who sticks out," said Allmon.
Maddie's tissue gifts have saved and enhanced the lives of transplant recipients who live in Springfield and halfway around the world in Singapore.
"That's become her legacy," said Allmon. "It's just remarkable."
Maddie, said her stepfather, never said anything to the family about being an organ or tissue donor, but it doesn't mean she would have objected, he added.
"We're confident that the type of person she was that she would have been very happy we were able to facilitate that for her," said Allmon. "She really did genuinely care for people."
"Now that we've gotten information about how many people she's helped, hands down, I have no problem with making that decision."
Allmon has spoken on behalf of Gift of Hope and Saving Sight several times. Now he sees a bigger picture.
"Gift of Hope gave Maddie's family the gift of being able to keep her beautiful spirit alive in other people," said Allmon. "Gift of Hope has truly given us that gift of hope. They've given us hope that she was here for a bigger purpose than we can understand."
A void
The program was like one Allmon, a 15-year veteran of the coroner's office, had done dozens of times before.
Along with EMS personnel, Allmon was at New Berlin High School in May 2017 for a prom-crash re-enactment, talking to students about distracted driving, drinking and driving and making good decisions on their upcoming prom night.
At an all-school assembly inside the gymnasium, Allmon talked about his job, how tough it was for him to knock on doors to tell families their loved ones have just died. He took students' questions, even a couple from Maddie, he recalled.
Afterward, he gave her a hug and told her he would see her later.
Later never came.
"She had prom the next day and she spent the entire day getting her hair and her nails and her makeup and her dress with her friends just right, bouncing around," recalled Allmon. "I was working and getting other stuff done, so I didn't see her Saturday at all."
Just before 8 a.m. that Sunday, May 7, Allmon got a call from the Sangamon County dispatcher about a motor vehicle fatality close to his home, between Pleasant Plains and Ashland.
Allmon was quickly dressed and out the door when another call came from dispatch, that perhaps someone else could respond to the scene.
"They tried, basically, to not get me to go on the call," he said.
A short time later, Allmon heard his wife scream from inside the house.
"She came running toward me, her phone in her hand and she threw it at me," he remembered. "She was screaming, "No, no, no."
Illinois State Police went to the house of Maddie's father, Richard Finch, in Cass County, where the car was registered. From there, they contacted Courtney.
In a story full of ironies, perhaps the most pronounced, admitted Allmon, is that he never talked about driving tired at the prom-crash re-enactments.
"Maddie had been up for 30 hours straight. She just fell asleep at the worst possible time," he said.
The void Maddie has left is still palpable, said Allmon.
"I think," he said, "that's why everyone misses her so much, because she was the loudest one in the room. I miss Maddie and I mourn her. I'm sad for my wife. I'm sad for Maddie's sisters. I'm sad for her dad. I'm sad because I see what they go through on a daily basis. It's a process, that's for sure.
"I see firsthand what families go through, (but) when I give them the worst news of their lives, I'm able to walk away in a few minutes."
'Giving spirit'
Now Allmon has another side of the story to tell.
"I can tell you that prior to losing Maddie that I was very pro-donation (of organs and tissue) and I can tell you that my boss, Coroner (Cinda) Edwards is very pro-donation," he said. "We believe in it and we believe it does a lot of good.
"If (the families of the deceased express interest in donating), then I'm all in. I'll share with them my story. I'll tell them how much it's helped me. They've asked is it too late for organ or tissue donation? No, let's talk about this. Let's make some phone calls.
"I'll never tell anyone how they should feel. I don't think it'll ever be right for me to do that. If I can give someone that gift of hope, that gift that we got, if I can give them that feeling they've given us, I would love to do that."
Gift of Hope's Roy Mayfield said that through her donations, "we've changed the ending to Maddie's story. Something good has come from something unexpected. It's really powerful.
"It says a lot about the family that's in crisis. It says a lot about Courtney because she was such a giving person."
The takeaway, added Mayfield, is that "people need to have that conversation with loved ones about tissue and organ donation. Donors can be from birth to 89 years old."
Saving Sight last year provided 2,957 cornea transplants to individuals locally and throughout the world thanks to 2,480 eye donors and their families, according to a recent press releasing promoting that November is Eye Donation Month.
Maddie continues to give in other ways, Allmon pointed out. A golf outing this past May 19 at Brookhills Golf Club attracted more than 140 golfers who helped, with event sponsors and supporters, to raise $9,000 for the Maddie Finch Memorial Scholarship Fund.
"Maddie always enjoyed helping people with anything," he added. "We stood and talked to people who stood for hours at her funeral. One of the girls I remember told me that (Maddie) sat with her on her lunch hours in the bathroom for almost a week straight because the girl was having a tough time with someone at school. She was always for the underdog. She had a giving spirit.
"(This tragedy) is not going to define the person I am. It's definitely not going to define my wife. With Maddie giving (the way she did), that perfectly defines who she was."
For further information or to learn how to donate, contact www.saving-sight.org or www.Giftofhope.org.
Contact Steven Spearie: spearie@hotmail.com or follow on Facebook or Twitter (@StevenSpearie).