A Donor's Enduring Legacy
Organ Recipients Pay Touching Tribute to Late Michigan Donor on Her Graduation Night
On what would have been Emily Matejovitz's high school graduation night, strangers drove up to 10 hours across the country to deliver something her mother never expected: the sound of her daughter's heartbeat. On June 5, 2026, the families of Emily's organ recipients gathered at the Matejovitz home in Muskegon, Michigan, to honor a 16-year-old whose quiet decision to register as a donor saved at least three lives WNEP.
The most striking moment came when Becky Smith pressed a stethoscope to the chest of 16-year-old Landon Coleman, a heart recipient from Virginia. She heard her daughter's heart beating inside him. "My name is Landon Coleman, and I have Emily's heart," he told her WHAS11.
Emily Registered as a Donor on Her Own
Emily Matejovitz died on December 27, 2024, four days after her father found her unresponsive at their Muskegon home. She was 16. Doctors at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital declared her brain dead. Her parents, Becky and James Smith, decided to donate her organs — then learned something that stopped them cold KARE11.
Emily had already registered herself as a donor when she got her state ID. She had checked the box without telling anyone. Under Michigan's first-person authorization law, her choice was legally binding. "She made that decision on her own," Becky said. Her parents fully supported it King5.
Three Strangers Received the Gift She Left Behind
On December 28, 2024, Emily's organs went to three people. Ripley Ferrell, then 3 years old, received a kidney. Landon Coleman, 15 at the time and born with five heart defects, received her heart. He had never spent a Christmas outside a hospital before that year. A 54-year-old man received both a liver and a kidney in a rare dual-transplant surgery WTOL.
Surgeons described the dual-organ transplant as a first-of-its-kind complex surgery in the United States. The 54-year-old recipient survived and later watched his own daughter — also named Emily — graduate from college Fox61.
Families Drove Nine and Ten Hours to Be There
Justin and Audra Ferrell drove nine hours from Oak Hill, West Virginia, with their son Ripley, now 4, who carries Emily's kidney. Landon Coleman and his family drove 10 hours from Virginia. All of Emily's known recipients chose to make the trip — something organ donation experts call a rare outcome THV11.
Justin Ferrell said the drive was worth every mile. "I would make this trip 1,000 times if it meant Becky got to pick him up again," he said. The image of Becky listening to Landon's heartbeat spread widely online, reaching thousands of people by the end of graduation night KVUE.
Emily's Legacy Pushes Organ Donation Forward
Michigan recorded 478 organ donors in 2025, a record year that produced 1,206 life-saving transplants, according to KSDK. Advocates point to the state's "Check Your Heart" policy — which lets residents join the donor registry through tax returns and ID applications — as a key driver. That law is how Emily quietly added her name to the list.
The Smith family set up the Emily Matejovitz Foundation and a $1,000 annual scholarship at West Catholic High School. They also donate her favorite foods — including mac and cheese and pickle wrap ingredients — to local food pantries, a tradition that has sparked a small "Blessing Bag" movement in the Muskegon area First Coast News.
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