BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — When the 2023 Tournament of Roses Parade rolls down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, local physician Dr. Larry Yokoyama will be riding on the One Legacy float. It's a gift from a woman he never met until her generosity saved his life and two others on Christmas day, 2020.
Tammy McKeown had a passion for life. She was a volunteer for several charities and pushed herself constantly. It was a phone call that her husband Shaun got in December of 2020 that took his breath away. Shaun was working out of town when Tammy's sister, Teresa Brossard, told him that she was in the hospital.
"Tammy calls her [Teresa] and said 'I think I'm gonna pass out' and Teresa said 'okay, I'm going to stay on phone with you, I'm coming over to your house right now.' Well, when she got there, Tammy had already stopped breathing," explained Shaun. "Teresa started to resuscitate her. The paramedics came and actually got Tammy's heart started again."
Shaun says doctors told him she stopped breathing for 18 minutes. Her organs were fine, but she didn't have any brain function. Shortly thereafter, her family discovered that the woman who gave so much to others had one more thing to share.
"She was such a giver in so many ways, so it wasn't surprising when we found out that she was an organ donor," said Teresa. "She continues to give after her passing."
Tammy's family had requested that her organs go to local residents. It was the phone call Dr. Larry Yokoyama was waiting for, having spent nearly 1,800 days on the transplant waiting list.
On the same day that Larry was given Tammy's right kidney, another person received her heart and the other kidney, while a third person now has her liver.
On Monday, Larry will be holding a floragraph of Tammy on the Lifting Each Other Up float for the whole world to see during the Rose Parade, a moment in the spotlight for someone who didn't need it to shine brightly.
Laughter through tears for this extended family, bound together in tragedy by a woman who gave everything in a final gesture of love.
She is the first local organ donor to be honored with a florograph on the float.
