I'm reading a book written by a female heart surgeon. She does do transplants. She once had a 63 year old man who needed a new heart. He got it - from a college student who died of head trauma suffered in a fall.
This young man saved or improved the lives of eleven strangers -
1. Corneas to a 14 year old girl who had lost her sight by a corneal perforation. She got to see her parents again.
2. Skin for a temporary graft for a fireman who had 3rd degree burns over 60% of his body rescuing a family from a house fire.
3. Bones, tendons, cartilage, ligaments as grafts to save the legs of a young man who had severe injuries from a car accident. He was thus able to walk again.
4 & 5. Lungs - one each to twin boys dying together from pulmonary fibrosis.
6. Pancreas and one kidney saved a 38 year old woman with brittle diabetes.
7. Other kidney saved a mother of two from dialysis 3X/week.
8 & 9. Liver was split in two - smaller portion to a baby born with biliary atresia who would have died before her first birthday. Larger section to a high school English teacher with Hep C.
10. Small intestine to a child dying of malnutrition 2° to an abnormally short bowel.
11. His heart to this doctor's patient.
One donor - and look at the lives that were saved and/or changed for the better!!
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