Life after death: Heart recipients meet family of people who saved their lives
James Woods reacts while meeting the family of Demarco Ward, his heart donor. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)
In a tearful Valentine’s Day event, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis brought together heart-transplant recipients and their donors’ families in what hospital officials say was possibly the largest gathering of its kind.
The hospital, which has performed 489 adult heart transplants since 1985, hosted nine heart recipients and their donors’ families at the Garrett Auditorium on Friday, Feb. 14.
Just about everyone in the auditorium was moved to tears as one by one the heart-transplant recipients met the families of their deceased donors.
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Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis Ron Childers Heart transplantAisling Mäki
Aisling Mäki has spent the better part of two decades writing about Memphis. A former digital journalist for WMC Action News 5 and staff reporter for Memphis Daily News, her work has also appeared in The Commercial Appeal, High Ground News, I Love Memphis, Inside Memphis Business, The Memphis Flyer, Memphis Parent, Memphis Magazine and Tri-State Defender.
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