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My beloved Mrs. T (that’s her nickname) has been in the intensive-care unit of New York-Presbyterian Hospital since December. She got a call there last Saturday night from one of the hospital’s transplant coordinators.
“We think we have a pair of lungs for you.”
We’d dreamed for years of hearing those words….
That’s where you came in. You gave her a priceless gift—the gift of life….
For us, our family and our friends, the news that she had finally found a donor was cause for rejoicing—but I also knew that somewhere in the New York area, another family was mourning the loss of a loved one.
Such is the tragic truth of double-lung and heart transplants: Someone must die to save a stranger’s life.
So I thought about you—and wept.
Because your child or partner or spouse unselfishly chose to be an organ donor, and because you chose to honor his or her wishes, Mrs. T is alive today….
But we know you weren’t that lucky, and so our hearts went out to you in your time of heartbreak….
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Read the whole thing here.The story of Moe Dominguez, a twenty-two-year-old Atlanta organ donor: