Utah families united by tragedy

SALT LAKE CITY — At age 16, Tyla Newbold didn't know if she'd make it through each night.

She was living in hospital rooms, and doctors couldn't help her life-threatening condition. It was one experimental procedure after another until one doctor decided to take a chance, based on unfounded research, that required a liver transplant for the young Sandy girl.

Now 12 years later, Tyla Newbold has become a symbol of the importance of organ donation. She also works as a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, promoting blood donations, as she required 238 pints during her multiple surgeries.

"It's hard when someone had to die for you to live," she said Tuesday at Shriners Hospital, where she met with the family of her donor to finish preparations for the 2010 Donate Life float that will be in the 121st Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year's Day.

In all likelihood, Newbold would not be alive if not for Caroline Ball Bryant, a 21-year-old who died in a car accident in 1997. When Bryant died, she was eight months pregnant, and while doctors saved the life of the child she was carrying, they could not save her after the crash.

"I couldn't change the fact that she was gone," said Coy Bryant. Acting on the wishes of his late wife, Coy Bryant donated her organs, saving the lives of Newbold and five others.

When Newbold rides in the Rose Parade on New Year's day, she'll be riding with the child Caroline Bryant was carrying the day she died — Carter Bryant, who is now 12 years old.

"I feel incredible love for her," Newbold says of the late Caroline Bryant, adding that she's become good friends with the family since she was given a new liver. Most organ recipients don't ever know their donors, but a few mutual friends deciphered the connection and introduced the two families later that same year.

On New Year's Day, Newbold and Carter Bryant will join 23 other riders from around the country on the float "New Life Rises," which is the world's largest organ donation awareness effort all year. With a phoenix rising out of flames, the float is designed to depict how new life rises when organ, eye and tissue donors give life and health to those in need. Seventy-seven floragraphs — photographs made from all-natural, floral components — including one honoring Caroline Bryant, will adorn the float.

Bryant's floragraph was started by California musicians All-4-One, who were in Salt Lake City Tuesday to help family members finish the masterpiece. All-4-One, known for the smash hit "I Swear," has had a personal connection to Tyla Newbold since the group met her at the hospital during a trip to Salt Lake City in 1995.