OAK RIDGE -- Shirley Grebe of Oak Ridge says ignorance killed her son.

Her son died while awaiting a heart transplant because people don't understand organ donation and how it saves lives, Grebe said.

Joe Grebe, 32, was placed on the transplant list in April, five months after being married. He died Wednesday from cardiomyopathy, a weakening heart muscle.

"He didn't have to die," she said. "They have the surgical procedures, medications and the machines; they just didn't have the organ to save my son.

"Once they lose a loved one, that loved one has no more use for those organs. That loved one could have given my son a normal life."

According to Mid-America Transplant Services, about 200 usable organs could be donated in this region every year. But only half of those organs are transplanted because the families refuse consent for organ donations.

"Families don't know the wishes of their loved ones, so they say no," said Gary Anderson, an area transplant coordinator for MTS.

Since her son was diagnosed with a heart virus when he was 17, Grebe has educated herself about organ donation.

"I would like to get the message across that he didn't have to die," she said. "I kind of understand their feelings, but I want them to know that this is a chance to help their fellow man."

Joe Grebe was placed on the transplant list after the heart-virus diagnosis. He waited for a heart for three years. He got better and was taken off the list, his mother said.

When he became ill again this spring he was placed back on the list.

"He knew his condition all along," Grebe said. "He loved the outdoors but didn't hunt because he didn't want to take a life. He thought someone was going to give him a new life one day, but it didn't work."

Grebe said she advocates organ donation so other families don't have to experience the grief of losing a loved one when that loved one could have been saved.

"Organ donation works," she said. "My son didn't have to die, but there just weren't enough organs to go around."