We watched the movie on Netflix apparently a true story of two families – one with a tragic illness of a young man and one of a married couple where the husband has a history of a weak heart. The transplant that connects these two families enables the second family to return to normalcy while the first family is morning the loss of their son and fiancé. The story connects because a colleague of mine has been battling heart issues for many years. The case is close to me since many years ago her parents passed away at an unexpected young age, both from heart related health issues. She expressed a worry back then that these conditions can be hereditary and that she might be impacted. Fast forward about five years and indeed it happened – despite a healthy lifestyle. A string of episodes occurred – requiring medical attention and procedures followed by long recovery periods. Along with that came an incremental but permanent impact of not being able to do all the things she used to do. Despite all of that she remained in good spirits, never gave up and patiently fought back after re-occurring setbacks. If there is an example of a fighter, she is it. Her case has drawn the attention of heart specialists across the country. When we met recently, she shared that after extensive reviews and considerations she has been approved for a heart transplant and has been entered into a waiting list for a donor heart. I was very happy for her – still recognizing that it this procedure is taxing at best, has risks and will require an even longer recovery process than what she has gone through in the past. On the way home from the dinner we had together with our families I was thinking about that – a ray of hope for a person that has an illness induced not by their own making and has a larger than life will to live. She deserves that opportunity and is a great candidate from that very perspective – here doing everything and anything in her power to be compliant with the requirements for preparation and execution of the procedure and ready for what is to come afterwards. And yet it will take someone who had the generosity to register themselves as a donor at the DMV to encounter a misfortune in their life to turn this ray of hope into reality for her.
The practical steps are rather mechanical – lists, notification systems and even a history-based outlook on the probability to find the matching heart – measured in month. And still there is the human dimension that gave me pause.
I registered as a donor many years ago when we moved here, when I got my first driver’s license. It is an easy step during the process of issuing a license – a little marker in a box that gets transferred to a note printed in small letters on the backside of the license along with other information like corrective lenses. Yet it could have a big impact if the unlikely and unfortunate incident happens.
The movie showed what I hope to see on the other side of this journey: a healthy person with a second chance for a fulfilled life, a family that has a new perspective for a life of normalcy and on the other side an unknown family that is grieving and hopefully still finding solace in the fact that a tragic event in their life has created this ray of hope for another person.