By Shanley Stern
Daily News Tribune
Tuesday, October 1, 2002

WALTHAM - Kendra Frabetti did what she loved most, even in death. She was that kind of person. Frabetti, 29, was a giving person. It was just her nature, according to her mother, Deborah English.

Six months ago, Frabetti died of a brain aneurysm as she drove to her job as a veterinary technician at Waltham-based Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center of New England.

In death, Frabetti, of Brockton, kept right on giving. She gave her heart to Dawn Hertzog, 38; her kidney to Harry Toole, 36; her lung to Evelyn Lewis, 48; her other lung to Trinity Breau, 60; and her bone marrow to a relative sick with leukemia.

"From my standpoint, it was like she continued," English said. "She was a giving, caring person. It's what she would have wanted."

In life, Frabetti gave to her three little girls Page, 9, Gabrielle, 8, and MacKenzie, 1, by working long shifts every day to make ends meet.

She made sure her sister, Candace Frabetti, was not only a sister, but a best friend. Her mother says she made her proud.

English said she and Candace decided to donate the organs to the New England Organ Bank directly after Frabetti died. Candace said not long before Kendra died, she said she would want to donate her organs if she died.

"Thank you for your loved one's decision to become a donor. Thank you for honoring her decision at a time of profound tragedy in your lives," donor recipient Trinity Breau wrote to the Frabetti family two months after her transplant. "You, your family and your loved one deserve so much more than a thank you. I can promise you that I will never take my new lung, my very life for granted. You have given me hope and a future."

The quadruple transplant that resulted from Frabetti's donation at the Brigham and Women's Hospital is the only hospital in the country to perform such a transplant from a single donor. Surgeons at Brigham and Women's have now successfully done it twice.

"Her touch and kind words have made the difference between life and death for so many," Dr. Amy Schroff said at the funeral. Schroff is co-owner of the Waltham veterinary center where Frabetti worked.