One million transplants, countless stories
Heather James spent much of her young life fighting to breathe. Born with cystic fibrosis, she was losing that fight by the time she’d reached 19. In November of that year, with her lung function at barely 15 percent, her doctors “didn’t think I was going to make it to the New Year,” she recalls.
Then a stranger saved her life. Heather would never meet the woman who gave her a new pair of lungs, a liver, and a second chance at life. It was a gift that Heather, now 29, honors every day.
Each day in the U.S., approximately 117 organs are transplanted. The recipients are grandmothers and babies, firefighters, corporate managers, celebrities, and middle-schoolers, your college roommate, your father, sister, pastor, best friend.
The donors, too, are toddlers and retirees, athletes and line cooks, mothers, and military veterans. Some are living, but for most others, the donated organ is a final gift from a family who, while facing the worst, summons the grace and generosity to say yes for someone else.
carolinekettlewell 