Hankies at the ready, folks!
BBC video article here.
Huh… I find this rather creepy.
Kinda weird for the transplant recipient. Get a heart but also a new family? I guess it’s good they get along; can you imagine if they turned out to hate each other for some mundane reason?
The story said they had written and talked on the phone a lot, even though they never met in person, so it’s not like he was a complete stranger.
Though I admit when I saw the thread title, I was thinking he was carrying a jar or a cooler or something.
Sorry, I couldn’t watch the video, but did they ever explain HOW he learned he had the bride’s father’s heart? Wouldn’t it be a HIPAA violation?
That is a very nice and refreshing story! Good the hear about people who care about the feelings of others in these days of personal selfishness.
Thank you for posting that!
(For those selfish people who do not understand: If someone does something nice for you, it is customary to do something nice in return.)
Here’s an interesting website that talks about that very issue. There are guidelines in place, but they acknowledge that donor families and recipients each have an interest in communicating after a transplant, and preventing that would have a negative affect on future donations. So they facilitate communication for a while, to make sure nothing inappropriate occurs (like requests for money), but if the people involved want to start communicating directly, they don’t prevent it.
Thank you for the link.
Hopefully the guy stays in touch with the family.
He’s had the heart for 10 years, and has been communicating with the daughter all that time.
When my mother died years ago we knew she wanted to be an organ donor. After a few months we got a few letters from the families of the people who received her organs. They came through the organization that helped out with the organ transplant. I believe they called first and asked if our family wanted to receive the letters and if we didn’t they wouldn’t forward them to us. The original letters were not supposed to contain any personal information and it would have been up to the receiving family on what they wished to say.
I read the letters we got, made copies for my siblings, but I never wrote back. Not long after my mother died I got married and had my first kid. I wonder if it’s still too late now a good 10 years later.
I tend to be a cynical old bird, but this story touched me. My dad had passed before I married, and while my mom did a great job walking me down the aisle and crying at the same time, had this been an option open to me, I would have embraced it.
It was very kind of the recipient to agree to perform in loco paternus.
Sooooo beautiful. I also do not have dust in my eye.
At least it wasn’t a penile transplant, now that would be uh weird.
Not exactly in response to your question, but I had to put this somewhere: Even an a–hole can save a life. (video)
The Z-grade movie of the year… when a tragic car accident slays her father and injures her fiance, Julie is consumed with grief. But her grief turns to horror as she finds that the penile transplant that repaired her fiance came from none other than her father’s loins. Can she go through with her upcoming wedding? Or was she never that much of a ‘Daddy’s Girl’? Find out, in this summer’s exciting presentation of … BRIDE OF FRANKENJOHNNY!
I need therapy