A couple has raised thousands of dollars to help children with organ transplants after losing their baby

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC/Gray News) – A Minnesota couple is making it their mission to help others after they recently had to say goodbye to their baby girl due to heart complications.

Matt Humphrey and Janelle Santos welcomed their first child together, Isabel, earlier this year and were thrilled with her arrival.

“Really, the only thing that mattered to us was Isabel,” Humphrey said.

They said he was a happy baby and they were ready to become parents.

“Everything was fine with her until about five weeks in I noticed things were going differently with her,” Santos said.

Isabel began to refuse to eat. Before long, she arrived at the hospital with a feeding tube.

Doctors then discovered that Isabel’s heart wasn’t pumping properly and put her on the transplant list.

“It was just an absolute whirlwind of emotions. I mean, we went from thinking we were going to go home with her and she was going to be fine, to knowing that a heart transplant was very likely,” Humphrey said.

Isabel suffered a stroke and was taken off the transplant list. The couple said they were then faced with the unthinkable decision to remove her from life support.

On July 31, with an outpouring of support, Isabel became an organ donor – donating her kidney to a person in need and other organs for research.

“Her last gift was to give life to someone else and it made it easier for us,” Humphrey said.

The community also stepped in, offering to help with their medical bills.

“I was telling people no; we don’t need that. It seemed silly to accept something when other families in the unit are struggling and you know these diagnoses are an insurmountable burden for them financially as well,” Santos said. “But we continued to receive gifts. People really want to help, and people are in a giving mood around it. So we want to be able to channel that to the people who really need it.”

A GoFundMe in Isabela’s honor quickly raised over $40,000 to help other families.

“Being able to honor her life and legacy and continue to fight for it every day. That’s how we do it,” Santos said.

The couple said they plan to continue raising money for other families facing the same stress they’ve been through.

“We really felt the love — to raise over $40,000 in three weeks is amazing and we’re not done yet,” Humphrey said.

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