GRIFFIN, Ga. — A Georgia mother who saved three of her children during a house fire will save eight more through organ donation, according to her family.
Madison Summerville, 23, died after a fire broke out at her Spalding County home on Thursday.
All three children survived, though one remains in the hospital.
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Channel 2′s Bryan Mims was at the burned-out home off Old Atlanta Road Monday, where the fire started in a bedroom of the mobile home around 11 a.m. and spread fast.
Family members said Summerville refused to leave the home until her three small children were out.
According to her mother, Wendy Wilbanks, after the fire broke out, Madison broke a window, shoved her 5-year-old son through it and told him to run for help. She stayed in the home in hopes of saving her 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.
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“And she was trying to get to the rest of them, and I guess it was just too much smoke, and she went down,” Wilbanks said.
A man at a trash collection site near the home ran towards the flames, as did a neighbor, Bradley Wright.
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“The only thing we knew to do was get the babies out,” Wright said. “So my fiance snatches the door open and she pulls out the first kid, and I performed CPR on him for about ten minutes. I got kids about that age, and the only thing I knew was what any father would do: just step into action and make sure the babies were all right.”
The other man performed CPR on the other child. By the time firefighters arrived, Madison was in cardiac arrest. She died at the hospital the next day.
Summerville’s sister, Chasidy Summerville, said she’s heartbroken her nieces and nephews are now without a mom.
“Her babies was her life. She loved all babies. She’s an amazing mom that would give her life doing everything she could to save her babies,” Chasidy Summerville said. “Just an amazing woman. A hero.”
Summerville’s 3-year-old daughter remains hospitalized but her family said she is improving and is expected to recover.
Investigators have not said what caused the fire, only that it was accidental.
The family has started a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses. According to the GoFundMe, Summerville was able to donate her organs and save her children’s lives as well as the lives of eight other people.
You can contribute HERE.
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