{ "item_title" : "The Story of a Heart", "item_author" : [" Rachel Clarke "], "item_description" : "Winner of the Women's Prize for Nonfiction Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize An unforgettable and inspiring true story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift--written by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor. 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. In The Story of a Heart, Dr. Rachel Clarke blends 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, nine-year-old Keira 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, Keira's parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young 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--in what Clarke calls the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery. The act of Keira's heart resuming its rhythm inside Max's body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK's laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira's mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter's heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet. In this profoundly moving... and] beautiful, humane book (Rob Delaney) 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 century and involving the knowledge and dedication of surgeons, nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. A powerful tale of two families linked by one heart, The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/66/804/543/1668045435_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "28.99", "online_price" : "28.99", "our_price" : "28.99", "club_price" : "28.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "28.99" } }

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On a TV drama, performing a heart transplant is frantic. Nurses race the patient down the halls; the surgeons snap at each other. Maybe the patient’s heart stops before they are brought back to life. That narrative couldn’t be further from the truth. As told in The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle that Saved a Child's Life, the process of heart transplantation can require stagnant months or years as patients and their families wait for donor organs; this is especially the case when the patients are children. One in five children in Great Britain and America might die while waiting on the transplant list, reports author and a palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke. Clarke braids a rigorous scientific and, at times, troubled cultural history of transplant medicine with the often harrowing story of two children: 9-year-olds Keira Ball and Max Johnson. The Story of a Heart starts with a terrible car crash that Keira survived with injuries so severe that the following day, all activity in her brain ceased. But while nearly every other major organ in her body was grievously injured, her heart, miraculously, beat vigorously. Meanwhile, a mild viral infection caused Max to have dilated cardiomyopathy—a severely  enlarged heart—and his prognosis was grim. A once active child, Max spent a year in bed, his parents aware that at any moment, a cardiac arrest could cut his life short. The day after Keira’s accident, her family removed her from life support. They placed her on a pediatric organ donor list, knowing it's what the kind, loving little girl would have wanted. And then Keira’s heart gave Max a second chance at life. Clarke shows the psychological calculus that the recipients of transplants make, writing of Max’s parents, “They were equally aware that the only thing that could give Max what he needed to live was the death, appallingly, of someone else’s child.” Clarke’s reportage of minor characters, like a junior doctor who happened to be driving on the same highway when Keira’s family had their car accident, also personalize the story. And not surprisingly, the narrative about Keira and Max’s families, and the team of professionals caring for them all, is very touching. Clarke never strips Keira of her humanity; the story of her heart, and her life, continues to help others in this informative, important book.