Accident victim's organs have helped 6

BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WALA) - A Bay Minette mother who lost her daughter in a tragic accident is on a mission.

Monica Chambless says six people are alive because her daughter made a selfless choice about organ donation, and she hopes others will make the same decision.

It's been a year-and-a-half since 21-year-old Cristine Hartley was hit by a vehicle while walking on the road in Louisiana. Chambless said her daughter was on a stretch of the road where there was no lighting, flanked by a 20-foot drop off.

"There was a big curve and a car came around the curve and hit her and threw her 85 feet," she said.

Chambless said there was never any doubt her child's organs would be donated. She said Cristine made up her mind about it when she was 19.

"Once she found out that if something happened her organs would be used to save other people, 'Oh I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it', and we never mentioned it ever again. It's never touched our lives until now," Chambless said.

Cristine's decision has also touched the lives of six people in need of organs to survive.

A 66-year-old man from Florida received both of Hartley’s lungs and a 55-year-old man received one of her kidneys.

Chambless has met those two recipients face-to-face but her daughter’s noble decision has helped others as well.

Christine's pancreas was transplanted into a 42-year-old-man from Pennsylvania. A 47-year-old woman from Louisiana received her liver.

Her other kidney went to a 28-year-old father of three who had been on the transplant list for 15 months.

Hartley’s heart went to a 16-year-old girl who had been on the transplant waiting list for a month.

"The way I see it, this is her legacy, to save these six people. That's the reason she was born, and that's how I survive," Chambless said.

Chambless hopes to someday meet the other four, but her biggest goal is bring more awareness to organ donation.

"She's done more after death than most people will do in their lifetime, by saving these six people, and that's just an amazing thing to me. It's such an unselfish act," she said.