HOUSTON – Death is tough. It can be numbing. The murder of a child is that much harder.
Paul Castro is a father who knows that pain.
“I think as a parent who loses a child… like you have one job as a parent, to get your kids, all the way to the finish line and I had to bury a child instead and so that’s every morning, every night, every minute of the day, is painful.”
Paul is opening up about having to make the decision to donate his son’s organs the night he was shot and killed leaving an Astros game almost two years. His son David was only 17 years old.
“I started learning this like yesterday…” David explained in a video recorded on a cell phone that Paul gave to us.
Paul said music was a gift that David possessed.
“He saw music where most people see colors.” Explained Paul.
I met him at a park not far from where Paul works, He said, “I am now remembered as the father who lost his son at the Astros game, and that’s not who I am… I am a destroyed person.”
A part of Paul Castro perished the night his son David was murdered leaving an Astros game in 2021. Paul and his sons David and Luke were just leaving an Astros game.
“We were so excited, we were walking back to the truck. Traffic was at a dead stop. Up from the side comes this vehicle speeding through and wanting to squeeze in. This car was really insistent. The guy got mad, he backed up, pulled over, got out of his car, and started yelling at me. I decided I needed to get away. I noticed where he was and I started figuring out he is going the same direction as I am.”
The angry driver followed Paul, with his two sons in the truck.
“David said, ‘Dad, he is right behind us,’ and I said, ‘I know son, it’s going to be ok. Don’t worry about it’,” he said.
Then, he recounted the worst.
“He started flashing his lights, lying on his horn, and I am thinking, I don’t know what to tell you, man, there is nothing there, I don’t know what’s going on, but I got super nervous. I started thinking about calling 911, started thinking about my getaway. I gunned it, I slammed on the gas and I took off. He came right after us, wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t gesturing him. I had my sons in the car, in my truck. You know the worst minutes of my life ensued. The explosion happened, BAM, BAM, BAM, real fast and the back window shattered and I turned around and I said, “Luke are you ok!” And he said, yes, Dad, yes. I said I can’t freaking believe this guy is shooting at us. I gunned it, I am speeding, I am driving, and I turned and he said, ‘It’s David, Dad.” And I turned the dome light on, and I started feeling his chest, and he wasn’t shot in the chest, but he was asleep, and I was like why is he asleep? And he said, ‘Dad, it’s his head.’ And I felt, and he had taken a shot to the head. I knew in that moment, my life as I knew it, was over and David’s life was probably over. Even though he was breathing, he was gone. But he was gone. “I am sad for myself, for not getting that awesome kid to become the man he is… would have been. We made a choice, and that choice was… during this tremendous loss, there was still an opportunity for him to be who he was, and that was a giving person. At that moment, the decision wasn’t hard, the fact we were having to make that decision that was excruciating. Unbelievable pain. But whether or not, David would be an organ donor, wasn’t.”
David saved several lives by donating organs including his heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, bone, skin, veins, and corneas.
“I hope the people who received his organs if they are watching this, know they got a good guy in them, and if one day they feel a little bit like I am starting to tap my legs a little better, that’s David living them through them in that moment.” Explained Paul
Steve Bynon is the Chief of Transplant at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann.
“It is the opportunity for people to have a second chance at life,” he said.
Bynon said for those wanting to become a donor, the easiest way is through the DMV and driver’s license.
“That is a legal document, so the family doesn’t have to make that decision in a very terrible time for them during the loss of their loved one,” he added.
According to Memorial Hermann, there are more than 100,000 people in the U.S. awaiting life-saving organs right now. The organ donation program at Memorial Hermann is one of the busiest LIVE donor kidney programs in the country.
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