Professional boxer Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez passed away Sunday night. Rodriguez suffered a fatal brain injury after being knocked out by Teon Kennedy in the 10th round of the junior featherweight bout Friday night. The fight was for a Regional Title, one Rodriguez will now never be able to win, but his legacy will live on through the organs his family has decided to so graciously donate.
It is believed that the donated organs will help save at least 8 lives, including Rodriguez's Uncle who was in need of a kidney transplant.
After Rodriguez was knocked out Friday night he was rushed to a Philadelphia area hospital. Rodriguez would never regain consciousness, the fighter was only 25 years old.
Rodriguez was born in Mexico, but grew up in Chicago and became an Chicago boxing legend. Rodriguez's career highlights included 5 Chicago Golden Gloves Titles, a National Golden Gloves Championship and a National Golden Gloves Bronze Medal. In 2004 Rodriguez qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Rodriguez's professional record was 14-3-1 with 8 knockouts.
I'm not here to argue the dangers of professional boxing, we can leave that for another day. The point of this story is to show how people can turn tragedy into triumph. Because Rodriguez's family will donate his organ's the young fighter will have not died in vain. It's a beautiful story and one that should make everyone realize how fragile our lives on this earth are, and how much organ donation can help save so many other lives. I'm an organ donor, and I see no reason why everyone cant do the same. It's not very hard to do, it merely takes a trip to the DMV. Yes, I know at times the DMV can be more painful then having your teeth pulled, but in the end I think its worth the trip. There really are no drawbacks to it...Unless your one of those conspiracy theorists who think a hospital is less likely to try and save an organ donors life and just harvest their body for organs.
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