Parents celebrate organ donation that changed Italy, return home 30 years after son's death

For the Green family, the memory of October 1, 1994 is a lot of things all at once. A day filled with an indescribable sense of loss and a day of gifts that gave us life.

On this day, their 7-year-old son Nicholas died in an Italian hospital two days after being shot during an attempted robbery while on a family trip from California, United States.

When his parents, Reginald and Maggie, heard the news, they made an impromptu decision that changed their lives and the lives of countless others. They chose to donate his organs.

Thirty years later, the Green Party is returning to Italy to attend a series of public appearances and meet some of Son's surviving beneficiaries. This is the latest chapter in what the media long ago dubbed the “Nicholas Effect,” a series of events that saved lives and kept his son's memory alive.