KEMP, JEFFREY BLAKE (CLOSE UP) - Desha County, Arkansas | JEFFREY BLAKE (CLOSE UP) KEMP - Arkansas Gravestone Photos

Jeffrey Blake (Close Up) KEMP

McGehee Cemetery
Desha County,
Arkansas

Bradley Barrett
Aug 3, 1984 - Oct 2, 2004
Jeffrey Blake
July 16, 1982 - Mar 12, 2002

www.arora.org/donor

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — After waiting three years to meet the boy who receive her son’s right kidney, Starr Kemp wasn’t going to let another two hours stop her.
An unexpected delay in meeting 7-year-old Da-Correa Stewart and his mother LaKinya, didn’t seem to bother Kemp.
“I wouldn’t have left,” Kemp said Thursday as she sat with her family at the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency patiently waiting for the Stewarts’ arrival.
Kemp’s daughter, Bridget, and Kemp’s two grandchildren, Tyler and Garrett, traveled with her from McGhee for the meeting.
When Da-Correa and his mother entered the room, the mothers embraced.
Da-Correa received Blake Kemp’s right kidney in March of 2002 after 19-year-old Blake Kemp died in a car accident on the family’s farm. Starr Kemp gave Da-Correa two brightly wrapped gifts.
As Da-Correa opened his gifts — a toy John Deere tractor and a toy farm set — Kemp told him, “We bought you some farm toys. When Blake was little he played with John Deere tractors.
“Do you know who Blake is?” she asked the boy as he played with the tractor. “You got his kidney and he’s my son,” she told him.

Kemp also gave Stewart a photo album that included photos of Blake and her family. Kemp told Stewart about her son as they looked through the album, while the others helped Da-Correa put together his new farm set.
Da-Correa suffered from in-stage renal failure from the age of one-month, his mother said. He was on dialysis and was fed by a feeding tube until he received the transplant.
“It’s like a 180 degree turn (after the transplant),” Stewart said. “He looks like a totally different person,” she said.
Kemp said her entire family joined in the decision to donate her son’s organs. She and her husband initially approached the Baptist Hospital staff about the donation.
“We had a friend who had received a heart, so we knew what a miracle this was,” she said. Doctors took both of his kidneys, his heart and his liver.
When the family made the decision, they didn’t know Blake had signed as an organ donor on his driver’s license when he turned 16.
“A couple of weeks after he died I saw his license,” Kemp said. “I was so thankful that we had done what Blake would have wanted. I hope that he’s proud of what his mom is doing.”
And knowing her son’s death gave others live has helped her cope with the tragedy.
“My son is a hero. He saved four people’s lives. The comfort I’ve gotten from that is just unreal,” she said.
The two women plan to stay in touch now that they have met. Kemp even extended an invitation to Da-Correa to come to the farm so that he could ride on a real-life tractor.
Kemp also keeps in touch with the man who received her son’s heart, and has written letters to the liver and left kidney recipients as well.
Stewart said she didn’t know if her young son fully understood the meaning of Thursday’s meeting. But she said she would explain it to him when they return home. She said she would always have Blake Kemp in her heart.

lizditz.typepad.com

Bradley Barrett Kemp, 20, Died of Poly Drug Abuse
The night of October 1st, Brad Kemp, a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, drank 12 beers, and took a number of other drugs. The University of Arkansas student was found dead the next day at a private residence.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas student Bradley Barrett Kemp's death was likely caused by an overdose of alcohol and a painkiller, said Sgt. Shannon Gabbard, Fayetteville Police Department public information officer.

Kemp, 20, was pronounced dead at 10:28 a.m. Saturday at Washington Regional Medical Center, Gabbard said. Police responded to an emergency call at 9:39 a.m. from Kemp's private residence at 527 N. Wilson St., according to University Relations. When officers arrived at the scene they found Kemp's girlfriend, Christina Reid, and Ferguson trying to resuscitate Kemp.

Willard Ferguson, one of Kemp's fraternity brothers, told police that Kemp drank about 12 beers along with one ounce of hydrocodone syrup with the beer, according to a police report.

"It appears to be an accident," Gabbard said. "It was not intentional. There are no signs of foul play." Kemp had had congestion and sinus troubles last week, according to the Associated Press.

Kemp took the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and possibly smoked marijuana during the night and had used another illicit drug and hydrocodone within the last 48 hours, another fraternity brother told police, according to The Associated Press.

Because Kemp was a Kappa Sigma member, officers were sent back to the house to investigate, according to The Associated Press. The funeral was scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday in Kemp's hometown of McGeehee, said Scott Walter, Greek Life director. He said many Kappa Sigma members drove to McGeehee Monday.

"I think the vast majority of them did [go to the funeral]," he said. He also said they chartered a bus to take people to the funeral. The incident happened off campus at a private residence in Fayetteville, he said.

Gabbard said the police department has not received the toxicology report, and it could be up to three months before they get it. Police are still investigating the death, Gabbard said. "I think they're looking into ... a timeline on when everything occurred," he said. Police are trying to get "additional information into what happened." Kemp was a Kappa Sigma fraternity member.


========

The Fayetteville Police Department announced the findings of a toxicology report in reference to the recent death of a University of Arkansas student.

On the morning of Oct. 2, Bradley Barrett Kemp, 20, was taken to Washington Regional Medical Center after a friend called 911 to report that Kemp was ill after consuming alcohol and hydrocodone, a drug that had been prescribed to him as a cough suppressant, the previous night. Kemp was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A sample of Kemp's blood was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab for analysis. The Fayetteville Police Department said the results revealed no evidence of alcohol but did reveal a toxic amount of the drug dextromethorphan combined with other drugs, the report continued. Dextromethorphan is an ingredient in over-the-counter cough syrup; if too much is consumed, the result can be fatal. It appears Kemp's death was a result of selfmedicating himself with dextromethorphan, diazepam, nordiazepam, hydrocodone and alprazolam, the police report stated. "There was a toxic amount of dextromethorphan in his system, and that alone can be fatal," said Sergeant Shannon Gabbard. "When it is combined with other drugs, the risk of fatality becomes even higher."

This investigation is continuing.

Photo courtesy of ronald conrad;
ronaldconrad@att.net

Contributed on 1/31/18 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1208948

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Submitted: 1/31/18 • Approved: 1/31/18 • Last Updated: 2/3/18 • R1208948-G1208947-S3

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