The Many Gifts of Sam Cohn: How one Vermont dad honors his son’s memory by donating blood and spreading joy

By Vicki Meltzer, communications volunteer 

 

There are many ways to give and share the gifts of a life. Few people are more aware of this than John Cohn and his family.  

 

To meet John is to be immediately surrounded by his warmth, positivity and easy nature. His love of life is obvious. Less obvious is the fact that he has first-hand knowledge of just how fragile life can be. 

In November 2006, John and his wife received a phone call that changed their lives completely. Their middle son,14-year-old Sam, had been on vacation in Florida with friends when a car struck him.  

 

 

“He was an amazing kid. All our boys are great,” John shares with pride at an American Red Cross blood drive in Vermont. “Sam was a super fun guy.”  

Not only was he an incredible athlete with a particular love of snowboarding – Sam was also a talented musician who was just as comfortable playing classical guitar as he was jamming to heavy metal on his bass. Samstone.org, a website set up to honor Sam, describes him as “an exuberant boy with a 1000-watt smile.”  

As they made their way to Florida to be with Sam in the wake of that terrible November day, the family knew that ultimately, he would not survive.  

“We spent three amazing, horrible days,” John says of their last days with Sam.  

The family had discussed organ donation, and they knew it was something that Sam would want. His kidneys, heart and liver would be transplanted to save four lives.  

 

“It was the hardest time of my life,” John says, “but we knew that we were doing something positive.” 

 

Since the accident, Sam’s family and friends have honored his memory and joyous, playful spirit by creating small stones with his name on them. Sometimes they give these Samstones to people they meet, and sometimes they leave them for a stranger to discover. 

Because of strict privacy restrictions, it is very rare for families to meet their loved one’s organ recipients. Thanks to Samstones and a strange twist of fate, however, John and his family were able to do just that.   John laughs as he tells the story.   One of the ways John honors Sam’s memory is to get kids excited about science. In 2009, a production company became aware of John’s science outreach and contacted him, seemingly from left field, to ask him to join their new reality show. Although John describes himself as, “the least reality TV person you’d ever meet,” the show seemed like a great way to share Sam’s story. And so, even though he doesn’t even watch TV, John agreed to appear on the show as their “mad scientist.”  

 

During one episode, John placed a Samstone. Then, something incredible happened.  

 

“I got a call a couple of days after the episode aired and it was this guy saying, ‘I think I’m your son’s kidney recipient.’” Strangely enough, although the organ donation took place in Florida, the recipient was from Vermont. “We got to meet him and go to his wedding,” John says. “It was amazing.”   

 

These days, John works as a Consulting Mad Scientist at Beta Technologies in Vermont. He also travels the world to, “tell the story of the importance of playfulness, because Sam was a very playful person.” John continues, “I talk about how a playful response to the hardest things – to loss like that – has been a super important part of my getting through, and my family’s getting through.”  

 

John is also enthusiastic about giving blood. He says that he’s always been an eager blood donor, and suddenly, in 2006, “We found ourselves on the receiving end, and it made it very personal. Everybody can make that kind of difference.”  

 

In fact, every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood. Red Cross blood donations save the lives of accident and burn victims, heart surgery patients, and those receiving treatment for cancer, leukemia, or sickle cell disease.  

 

Blood donations also save the lives of organ transplant patients. 

As John observes, “You just never know who’s going to be on the other end of that donation.” 

In a very real sense, Sam Cohn lives on. He lives on in those whose lives his organs helped to save. He lives on in Samstones, and in John’s work to teach the world about the importance of play and science-based discovery. He also lives on in John’s dedication to donating blood. 

“There are very few ways that you can donate something as a living person. You can donate a kidney, but blood is something you can donate lots of times,” John says. “Giving other people the possibility of getting up and snowboarding again or something like that, just because of this pint of blood? It’s the best thing you can do.” 

Sam would likely agree.

If you are interested in becoming a blood donor and want to learn more, visit redcrossblood.org. One donation can help save more than one life.