Bay Area Teen, Man Who Received His Heart Honored On Rose Parade Float

BAY AREA, CA — One week before he was fatally struck by a car in February 2020, 18-year-old Joseph Barratt of Concord went to the DMV and registered as an organ donor. Some 40 miles away in San Francisco, Ted Jung, a patient at Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center, awaited a heart transplant.

At any given time there are thousands of people awaiting a life-saving organ transplant in California alone, and more than 100,000 nationally. As fate would have it, Jung received Barratt's heart in a transplant on Feb. 14, 2020, which happens to be National Donor Day.

Organ transplant recipients and donor families rarely meet but almost four years later, their shared fate brought Jung and Barratt's families together. That's because Donor Network West and Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center selected Jung and Barratt as honorees for the 2024 OneLegacy Donate Life Rose Parade Float, and both families were present at a Nov. 29 send-off event at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

When Jung rides aboard the float during the 135th Rose Parade on New Year's Day in Pasadena, Barratt will be with him not only in his heart but in the form of a specially-made portrait to be placed atop the float.

During the send-off event, the Barratt family was presented with a floragraph of their son, the same one that will adorn the float. The artistic portrait is created by using spices, seeds and other organic materials to cover a digitized photograph of the individual. The final image is astonishingly realistic, recognizable and a fitting memorial to organ, eye and tissue donors everywhere.

"Each year I look forward to our Rose Parade collaboration with Donor Network West," said Beth Shindler, director of Transplant and Advanced Organ Therapies at CPMC. "This year we are honoring heart transplant recipient Ted Jung who is a fantastic ambassador for the importance of donation. Ted has formed a meaningful bond with his donor family ... making this year incredibly special and displaying the power of organ donation."

The Donate Life Float is highly anticipated this year after it received the Tournament of Roses Sweepstakes Award — the highest honor —last year for its design and float.

This year, the Donate Life Float with showcase the culture of the Hopi, native to the American Southwest. The theme is "Woven Together: Dance of Life," as Donor Network West has helped facilitate the recovery of every life-saving organ in northern California and northern Nevada for the past 35 years.

"One family’s decision to donate gave Ted and his family the gift of time, life and hope," said Janice Whaley, president and CEO of Donor Network West. "We are happy to have been a part of their journey thanks to the power of organ donation."

Jung waited for 72 days for the life-saving transplant after he was admitted to Sutter Health CPMC in December 2019 with heart failure.

Barratt was walking home from the library the night he was struck on Port Chicago Highway near state Highway 4. He was rushed to John Muir Health in Walnut Creek — a partner hospital with Donor West Network — where he remained on life support but his injuries were ultimately determined to be non-recoverable.

"Out of this unspeakable tragedy also came hope due to Joe’s ultimate act of giving, which made it possible for four people, including Ted, to continue their lives,” said Michelle Lopes, system chief nurse executive at John Muir Health. "In the midst of pain and grief, many families, like Joe’s family, make the brave decision to help others who are in critical need of an organ, and we should all be grateful to them."

Joseph's mother, Leslie Barratt, said it was "only fitting that someone with a heart as big as Joe’s would save the lives of several others during his last moments on Earth."

The Jung and Barratt families are now interconnected in a way neither of them thought possible.

"I now have two birthdays and will never forget either," Jung said.