Boy to be honored with memorial blood drive
Published 7:54 pm Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Brandon Codie Miller never won recognition for perfect attendance while enrolled at West Elementary. He was born with a variety of medical problems that meant he was homebound more often than not. In fact, Brandon’s teacher Pat Mooney estimated Brandon was able to attend only two days of last school year before his death at age 13 last December.
But Brandon loved his days at West, Mooney said, and he will be honored there this weekend.
An American Red Cross blood drive will be held in Brandon’s memory on Saturday. The drive will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the school’s lunchroom. Donors will be required to show identification. Brandon’s mother, LaDonna Griffin, said she hopes to make the drive an annual event.
“He didn’t have real regular attendance, but you could tell when he came that he really wanted to be at school,” said Mooney, whose class Brandon was enrolled in for five years. “It was a matter of keeping him safe and well versus giving him the interaction with his peers.
“It’s a challenge for the parents and it’s a challenge for the teacher, too, because you don’t want a child to be sick.”
Brandon’s health required many surgeries and doctor visits. During one surgery last fall he required a blood transfusion and almost didn’t survive the hospital visit.
“That’s one reason I thought about doing a blood drive Ñ because I know what it’s like,” said Griffin, who has donated blood for more than 20 years. “I know it’s important to give and I know what it’s like to need it.”
Brandon was born 30 weeks into Griffin’s pregnancy on Sept. 25, 1991. He had brain damage and weighed less than 4 pounds. Griffin was told he was expected to live only a few hours, but she was able to take him home about two months later.
“He got to come home about when he was supposed to be born,” she said.
Brandon was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at six months of age. “I had to stay home to take care of him,” Griffin said. “He had a nurse that came in 12 hours a week and that’s the only break I got.”
“She dedicated her life to Brandon,” Mooney said. “You have to admire a parent who is willing to put their own needs aside and give to a child. You wonder how they do it sometimes Ñ it’s so physically and mentally demanding.”
Brandon spent his life in a wheelchair and was unable to speak. But Griffin said he was a happy little boy who had his own way of communicating.
“He understood about life and death,” Griffin said. “I taught him about heaven.”
When his great-grandmother died, Griffin explained to Brandon that his Mawmaw was in heaven.
“He looked up toward heaven, then back down and just started crying,” she said.
Brandon’s own death was unexpected. He was very sick last fall, Griffin said, but was OK by Thanksgiving. However, a week later he was in the hospital with upper respiratory problems.
Before his death on Dec. 19, Griffin had to administer breathing treatments and medicine regularly.
“He loved getting his breathing treatments because he knew Mommy was going to hold him and rock him,” she said. Before she snuck in a few hours of sleep one night, Griffin told her son that she would give him another treatment when she awoke. But when she got up, she found that he had died.
Griffin originally hoped to organize the memorial blood drive in time for what would have been Brandon’s 14th birthday in September. Because of time involved in planning, the drive will instead be held just nine days before the anniversary of his death.
“I wanted to do something in his memory — not just to keep his memory alive in people, but also to help people,” Griffin said.
“I think she wanted to give life to other people because he loved life so,” Mooney said. “I think this is really a unique way to honor his memory.”