Breathe To Read

Breathe To Read

Monday, January 20, 2025

Book: The Story of a Heart

 Book: The Story of a Heart

Author: Rachel Clarke

Pages: 256


This is my 16th read for the year

What Amazon Says:
The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children - one of whom desperately needs a new heart.  One summer day, 9 year old Kiera Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries.  As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat.  In an act of extraordinary generosity, Kiera's parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.  Meanwhile 9 year old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, fighting the virus that was causing his heart to fail.  When Max's parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family.  The act of Keira's heart resuming its rhythm inside Max's body was a medical miracle.  While waiting for transplant, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK's laws around organ donation.  This is the story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift.  Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira's heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible stretching back over a cenury.

This was a great book.  The author does a fantastic job of weaving the personal stories of Max and Kiera and what their families went through with the history of organ transplantation (and other life saving procedures).  It is wonderfully written and lays out how deeply hard it is for families in these situations as well as the people who care for them.  I am really glad I read this one.

Stars: 5


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