NEW YORK (NewsNation Now) — New York City police officer Wilbert Mora, who was killed in the line of duty, just helped save five more lives because of a choice he made before his death.
Mora, 27, decided to be an organ donor.
“He’s a hero,” Roxanne Watson, an organ transplant recipient, said Thursday on “NewsNation Prime.” “Organ donors are heroes. That’s all it is to it. And he’s a hero over and over and his passing is not only going to save those five people, but it’s gonna save thousands of others because people are motivated now to go ahead and do exactly what he did — sign up to be an organ donor.”
Mora and officer Jason Rivera were fatally wounded last Friday by a gunman who ambushed them while they responded to a call about a family dispute at a Harlem apartment.
After it became clear that Mora wouldn’t survive the shooting, his family had his organs donated — in accordance with his wishes. Mora helped save the five people with his heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas.
“He saved five people, my donor saved five people,” Watson said. “There were just so many things about this that, you know, hit me in the heart, literally.”
Watson waited two years for a heart before receiving her transplant in 2010.
She spent a total of “104 days in the hospital, 78 waiting for the heart,” Watson said. “That was tough. That was the toughest part. You lay in there and you’re dying. And you’re hoping that somebody comes and saves you.”
Mora was in his fourth year on the job. His wake and funeral Mass are planned for next week.