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WHEELING - The story of Wheeling native Heather Miiller, her untimely death and the gift of organ donation is the focus of a film presentation premiering tonight in Wheeling.
GIFTED: The Docuseries is set to open at 8 p.m. tonight at the J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center at Wheeling Park High School. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the cost to attend is $15.
Members of the Miller family and filmmaker Robert Horsey will partake in a question-and-answer session following the viewing.
Miller's story serves as the pilot episode in the docuseries, which largely centers on the importance of organ donation. Miller passed away as result of a car crash just days before she was to graduate from the West Virginia University School of Nursing.
She was an organ donor, and doctors were able to retrieve five of her organs. Four of them - her heart, liver and both kidneys - were transplanted, explained her mother, Jody Miller.
Doctors also extracted tissue from Miller that was used to save 50 lives.
Jody Miller tells the story to encourage people to register as an organ donor.
"I would ask them why they would not," she said. "My message is, join the registry.”
Miller's hope was to someday be a critical care nurse and become a nurse anesthetist, Jody Miller added.
The filmmaker Horsey is himself a critical care registered nurse who has dedicated most of his 18-year career to the field of organ donation and transplantation. He previously wrote a book titled "GIFTED," telling the stories of how lives and families can be affected by organ donation.
Horsey spoke of how he came to meet the Millers and expand on his idea for a film docuseries as he traveled with Jody Miller in Wheeling on Thursday.
"I met Jody and (her husband) Gary at the Transplant Games of America in 2018 in Salt Lake City," he said. "Someone from CORE (Center for Organ Recovery and Education) introduced Jody and Gary to me while I was there for a book signing."
Horsey said he had "an idea in my head" for the docuseries as a follow up to his book.
"After getting to know Gary and Jody, I asked them to consider being the featured family in the pilot episode," he said.
He added that more than 30 hours of interviews were conducted across five states, and there were "countless hours of editing" for the one-hour episode. Horsey said five episodes are planned for the first season of GIFTED: The Docuseries. Episodes 2 and 3 are in pre-production and will begin filming in August near his hometown of St. Louis.
"I want to publicly thank the Miller family for opening their fives to me and sharing Heather’s story," Horsey said.
He also thanked CORE for being the presenting sponsor for the docuseries.
Jody Miller said their involvement with encouraging organ donation has helped her family deal with the death of her daughter.
"It gave us an avenue in which to channel our grief," she explained. "Heather will always be remembered for organ donation, and her legacy will live on forever. In her death, she continues to save lives."