Watch the video of the honor walk below.
Video credit: Joann Jackson Bogard
A video of 15-year-old Mason Bogard was released by his family in which they can be seen spending the last moment with the teenager before he went into surgery for the organ donation.
Joann Jackson Bogard gave people a glimpse of her pain which she and her family gone through in the hope that future lives will be saved.
Mason, from Evansville, Indiana, had seen a choking challenge on social media and he took part in it. His parents decided to donate his organs as the teen ended up passing away from his injuries.
Mason had a mature sense of patriotism and often thanked veterans for their service and he is known as a kind and generous young man.
But as a teen, his brain is still developing and he is not mature enough to think about the things which may happen in future.
In choking challenge you need to experience a brief moment of euphoria, temporarily pass out.
“To a younger person it seems fun, funny, a dare, a way to get others to laugh,” Bogard explained on a May 11 Facebook post.
“If someone who is young (with a brain not developed enough to think through all of the consequences of their actions, and whose brain is still impulsive) watches 99 videos of someone doing a challenge (a dare) without a negative consequence, they are more likely to try it too.”
On May 6, his family was walked alongside his hospital bed as Mason was wheeled into the operating room for organ donation.
“Go be a hero, buddy,” Mason’s grieving father, Steve Bogard, whispered to his unconscious son.
“While we are devastated that we will never experience so many things with Mason again, we are able to find some comfort in the fact that Mason will save the lives of others,” Mason’s mother wrote on Facebook.
“He would have wanted it this way. He was an extremely generous young man.”
“Hug your children, tell them you love them. Enjoy every moment and let the little issues go. We know in our hearts that Mason’s love, generosity, and compassion will live on through those that he is about to save,” she wrote.
Mason’s parents and community are spreading #MasonsMessage, to plea for parents and caregivers to be protective about what youth have to access on the internet.
Bogard wrote: “(Youth) are always creating new ways to find that independence and stay one step ahead of mom and dad,”
“BUT as parents and mentors, we need to be better at educating them on the real dangers in this world; better at keeping our eye on everything that they are posting, commenting and watching online; better at protecting them.”
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