When her infant son began showing signs of jaundice following a full-term, healthy pregnancy, Sarah Beckstrom soon began a journey from fear, anger and sadness to eternal appreciation for a perfect stranger.

But the Mitchell mother and LifeSource, the region’s primary organ procurement organization that helps connect donors and recipients like baby Charlie — now a healthy and active teenager — say continued education around organ donation is necessary to ensure more families can feel what the Beckstroms have for the last decade.

“He was just not thriving. He couldn’t absorb, you know, milk. He was just kind of a not content child,” Beckstrom recently said in an interview with The Dakota Scout, recalling the early signs of the rare genetic liver condition — alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency — that threatened her son’s life before his first birthday.

State apologizes, but can’t explain missing evidence in prison overdose case

Charlie was placed on the organ waiting list at 7 months old. Three months later, the call came.

A 13-year-old donor had died, and his liver was a match.

Today Charlie is also 13 — a healthy, energetic one. But for Beckstrom, joy exists alongside grief — for the family who lost their child and ultimately saved hers.

“It was kind of like I wrote the donor’s family after, which was probably one of the most emotionally challenging, difficult things I’ve ever done,” she said. “That circle wasn’t closed for me. And I’m like, okay, I need to do more. Because they gave him a second chance at life.”

That’s why Beckstrom became a LifeSource ambassador, sharing Charlie’s story in hopes of encouraging more people to check the “yes” box on their driver’s license. The organization oversees the donation system across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota — responding around the clock when someone dies under circumstances that allow organ donation, supporting families, coordinating recovery and transporting organs to recipients.

“When I think about people who say yes to donation, who put donor on their driver’s license, I think that’s the very best in humanity because they’re helping another person,” said Susan Mau Larson, chief administrative officer for LifeSource.

Only about 1 percent of deaths occur in a hospital while the patient is on a ventilator, the criteria that’s typically required for organ donation. But in recent years, medical innovations have helped expand the donor pool nationwide. Perfusion devices can preserve organs longer. The federal HOPE Act allows organ donation between HIV-positive donors and recipients. Broader medical criteria are also increasing the number of viable transplants. Nationally, transplants have risen by about 50 percent over the past decade.

Surgeons say the emotional weight of the process is shared in operating rooms across the country.

Dr. Hassan Turaihi, who performs one or two organ transplants a month at Sanford Health, says the work is both devastating and beautiful.

“Thousands of people are waiting for a second chance at life… a functional heart, a healthy liver, or a working lung,” he said. “Their lives are on pause desperately hoping for a miraculous call so organ donation is a miracle. It’s the ultimate sacrifice.”

Up to eight people can benefit from a single donor — two kidneys, a heart, lungs, eyes, corneas, pancreas, small bowel and a liver, which can be split to help two patients.

“When I go in for those organ donations, it’s sad to hear the story of family and the donor who made the ultimate sacrifice, but at the same time you know you’re giving someone else the ability to have a new life and new chapter,” Turaihi said.

LifeSource leaders say South Dakota has long had one of the highest donor-registration rates in the nation. But in recent years the rate has slipped from about 60 percent to 57 percent. Mau Larson attributes the decline to national misinformation — claims that organs are lost in transit, that families feel pressured or that the process lacks oversight.

She pushed back on those narratives, emphasizing the accountability and transparency built into every step of the system.

The organization is also working to improve culturally responsive outreach, particularly among American Indian communities. Tribal engagement across South Dakota, including partnerships with Native chaplains and respect for beliefs surrounding keeping the body intact, are initiatives Mau Larson credits with donor rates staying strong in the state.

Data from the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network show the number of American Indians receiving transplants in South Dakota was five in 2023, eight in 2024 and seven in 2025. The state has two kidney-transplant programs, but patients needing other organs — including hearts or livers — typically travel to Minnesota or Colorado. Meanwhile, the number of American Indian deceased donors in South Dakota fluctuated from six in 2023 to two in 2024 and five in 2025.

LifeSource operations are nationwide. In a three-state region that covers South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, that means retrieval teams traveling frequently by air. Transporting organs involves specialized handling protocols, and recent federal changes have streamlined airline procedures and TSA requirements.

Despite ongoing budget negotiations in Washington, Mau Larson said LifeSource has avoided disruptions.

LifeSource leaders say they are grateful for South Dakota’s long record of donor registrations, and they continue answering questions for anyone unsure about what saying “yes” really means.

“We’re talking about helping another person,” Mau Larson said. “That’s the very best in humanity.”

Days after more than a foot of snow fell in northern Wisconsin, another winter storm could bring anywhere from six to 11 inches of snow to the southern half of the state.

All of southern Wisconsin is under a winter storm warning beginning Saturday, Nov. 29, according to the Milwaukee/Sullivan National Weather Service office.

The warning goes into effect beginning at 3 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 29 until 6 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 30 for the following counties: Marquette, Green Lake, Sauk, Columbia, Iowa, Dane, Jefferson, Lafayette, Green, Rock, Walworth, Racine and Kenosha.

The winter storm warning extends into southeastern Wisconsin beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 29 for Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Dodge, Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. The warning will expire at 6 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 30.

More: Milwaukee under winter storm warning Saturday; heavy snow in forecast

In northeast and central Wisconsin, the National Weather Service in Green Bay has issued a winter storm warning from 9 a.m. Nov. 29 to 6 a.m. Nov. 30 for Wood, Portage, Door, Waupaca, Outagamie, Brown, Kewaunee, Waushara, Winnebago, Calumet and Manitowoc counties. Snow is expected to be six to nine inches.

Lesser amounts of snow — between two and eight inches — are expected to the north, up to the Michigan border. Marathon, Menominee, Oconto, Shawano and southern Marinette counties are under a winter storm watch from morning through late night Saturday, Nov. 29.

In the western and southwest parts of the state, the National Weather Service in La Crosse has issued a winter storm warning between 3 a.m. Nov. 29 to 6 a.m. Nov. 30 for Adams, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Buffalo, Jackson and Trempealeau counties, with five to nine inches of snow expected.

There’s also a winter storm warning between midnight Nov. 28 and 6 a.m. Nov. 30 for Crawford, Grant and Richland counties, with eight to 11 inches of snow expected.

More: Here’s how much it snowed in northern Wisconsin before Thanksgiving

The storm is expected to be a “long duration snow event,” NWS meteorologist Kevin Wagner told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Wagner said those traveling for Thanksgiving should keep an eye on the forecast.

“If you can alter plans to avoid the worst conditions, that would probably be the best idea,” he said.

Wisconsin weather radar

What to do in a winter storm

During winter storms, NWS advises staying inside, stocking up on food and water, and charging essential devices in case of power outages. If your heat goes out, NWS says you should:

• Close off unneeded rooms.
• Place towels or rags in cracks under doors.
• Close blinds or curtains.
• Eat and drink to provide your body with energy.
• Wear layers of loose-fitting, lightweight and warm clothing.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara apologized to the Somali community for a comment he made connecting “East African kids” to crime.

“The Somali community here in Minneapolis has been welcoming and has shown love towards me, and I appreciate it,” O’Hara said at a news conference on Thursday. “Over the last three years we have been working together to try and address some of the real serious problems that we have in our community.”

“We have to be honest at times with the problems that we’re having in our community, and we need our community to help us fix those problems together because it’s real and it’s serious. At the same time, if people have taken anything that I have said out of context in a way that’s caused harm, I apologize, and I’m sorry for that because that’s not my intention at all,” O’Hara added.

In an interview with WCCO earlier this month, O’Hara was speaking about a deadly Halloween shooting as well as juvenile crime plaguing the city when he made the comment. Alpha News reported that the Dinkytown area, where the shooting took place, has seen a series of crimes including assaults, robberies, shootings and auto thefts.

TRUMP TERMINATES DEPORTATION PROTECTIONS FOR SOMALI NATIONALS LIVING IN MINNESOTA ‘EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY’

During the interview, he stated that the young people committing the crimes were not “poor kids from Minneapolis,” but rather kids that come from out of town who take “mommy’s Mercedes-Benz to Dinkytown, and they don’t know where they are.”

“Groups of kids, groups of East African kids that are coming from surrounding communities and not just one community, kind of all over the place,” O’Hara told WCCO.

After the interview, a petition on Change.org demanded an apology from O’Hara, saying that the East African community of Minneapolis “has already been carrying the weight of unfair scrutiny for years” and that the chief’s comment would “deepen that burden.”

The Minneapolis Somali community has faced scrutiny on a national level in recent days after a bombshell report revealed a series of alleged financial schemes that ended with terrorists getting taxpayer dollars. Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute found that Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked terrorist organization in Somalia, was receiving funds that could be traced back to Minnesota.

“Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way,” a former official who worked on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force told Thorpe and Rufo.

Following the report, President Donald Trump announced he was ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis in Minnesota. 

The Secretary of Homeland Security may designate a country for TPS if nationals cannot return safely or if the country “is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately.” Countries currently under TPS are Burma, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Lebanon, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen.

“Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately the Temporary Protected Status (TPS program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Rufo, one of the authors of the bombshell report, said Trump’s announcement was a “great start” but that there is still more work to do.

“Canceling TPS for Minnesota Somalis is a great start. Next: review all asylum, refugee, and citizenship applications for any hint of fraud or technical error; then initiate denaturalizations and mass deportations up to the furthest limits of the law. They have to go home,” Rufo wrote on X.

MINNESOTA TAXPAYER DOLLARS FUNNELED TO AL-SHABAAB TERROR GROUP, REPORT ALLEGES

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn, who praised Trump’s decision, wrote a letter on Friday to U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen demanding an investigation. The letter was also signed by Emmer’s fellow Minnesota Republicans, Rep. Pete Stauber, Rep. Michelle Fischbach, and Rep. Brad Finstad.

“It is alleged that Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the nation, has been sending millions back to Somalia via the hawala network, an informal money trafficking network which is notorious for funds ending up in terrorist networks, and in this instance, Al-Shabaab,” the letter reads.

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The lawmakers cited the various cases involving members of the Somali community, including the Feeding our Future fraud scheme, fraud in the Housing Stabilization Services program, Child Care Assistance program and Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program.

“It is bad enough that these individuals are defrauding our state, taking services and funds away from children and the most vulnerable, but now there is a good reason to believe that Minnesota taxpayer dollars are going straight into terrorists’ hands. These new allegations present not only a serious betrayal of taxpayer trust, but also a grave threat to our national security,” the letter states.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Walz’s office for comment.