On Dec. 16, 2005, a pediatrician told Akemi Nakamura that her 2-year-old daughter was brain dead.

"When I heard the words coming out of the doctor's mouth, I felt nothing but despair," said Nakamura, 46, who has three other children.

Her youngest child, Yuri, had been a perfectly healthy infant until she had suffered a seizure three days previously. The ambulance crew told the Nakamuras not to worry, believing it to be a febrile seizure young children sometimes suffer.