Queens teen of Guyanese heritage becomes a hero in death as organ donations save four lives

A 13-year-old Queens boy of Guyanese heritage, shot to death on his way to school last week, has given the gift of life to four people through organ donation, the New York Daily News has reported.

The boy, identified as Sanjay Samuel, received a final tribute from his grieving family, who chose to donate his organs after he was declared dead on Wednesday at Cohen Children’s Medical Center. Among those saved: a boy his own age who now carries Sanjay’s heart, a 15-year-old who received his liver, and two adults in their 50s who benefited from his lungs, pancreas, and a kidney.

“I’m happy. It’s a good thing,” Sanjay’s father, Theophilus Samuel, told the Daily News. “It’s very hard, this loss. But at least he saved four people.”

Leonard Achan, President and CEO of LiveOnNY, the nonprofit that coordinated the transplants, said Sanjay “became an organ donor hero today after his grieving family generously said yes to giving the gift of life.”

Achan noted that the recipients, who live in New York, Ohio and the District of Columbia, now carry a part of Sanjay’s legacy. “LiveOnNY is humbled and honored to be the stewards of these precious gifts of life so that Sanjay and others may live on,” he said.

The tragedy that claimed Sanjay’s life unfolded on September 22 outside a Dunkin’ Donuts at Springfield and Linden Boulevards in Cambria Heights, Queens. According to police, a 16-year-old approached Sanjay on a Razor scooter, pistol-whipped him, and then shot him in the back of the head in what investigators believe was a gang-related clash.

The alleged shooter surrendered at the 105th Precinct stationhouse on Friday and was ordered held without bail by a Queens Criminal Court judge on Saturday.