The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Child’s Life
By Dr. Rachel Clarke
The human heart is an essential organ of the human body. Without it, or some kind of mechanical cardiac assist device, life is not sustainable.
The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Child’s Life is partially a sad story and partially a story of one child’s perseverance to live. The book chronicles two families: one family who loses a beloved child, and the other who watches their son and sibling slowly die from cardiomyopathy.
Dr. Clarke expertly takes the reader through the history of organ transplantation, even quoting a book that I had previously read and enjoyed called Spare Parts, detailing the triumph of the first heart transplant by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1967 of an adult heart. Unfortunately, the patient only lived a few days and subsequent heart transplants were similarly unsuccessful.
It wasn’t until the discovery of cyclosporin, a drug that significantly reduced the risk of organ rejection, plus serotyping, which allows medical professionals to determine the best match for a successful transplant.
The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Child’s Life shows how when faced with the horrible reality of their beloved sister and seven-year-old daughter would not recover from the severe brain damage she suffered from the automobile accident. The family made an unselfish gift of Keira’s organs to anyone who could use them.
The recipient of the heart was a young boy whose own heart had failed to the point he was on a ventricular assist device—usually meant to be a bridge to a transplantation. Once Keira’s heart was implanted in Max, he suddenly had his whole life ahead of him.
Besides the history of heart transplantation, I was pleased with the emphasis on grieving families to make the ultimate sacrifice and allow parts of their loved one’s body’s to be given to those desperately in need. I have long felt that being an organ donor was something very important to me, so I found that part of the story to be very satisfying.
This book would appeal to those readers who are interested in the history of heart transplantation, as well as those readers who might be interested in the more human aspects of heart transplantation.
5/5 stars
[Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest and objective opinion, which I have given here.]