The story of a heart two families united by loss, love, and lifesaving medicine

"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 wante...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clarke, Rachel, 1972- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Scribner, 2024.
Edition:First Scribner hardcover edition.
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Summary:"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"--
Physical Description:xxi, 232 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:9781668045435
1668045435
9781668045442
1668045443
Author Notes:Dr. Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor and author of three Sunday Times (London) bestselling books: Breathtaking , Your Life in My Hands , and Dear Life , which was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award, longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, and chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Prior to medical school, Clarke worked as a broadcast journalist. She writes for many publications, including The New York Times , The Guardian , and The Sunday Times (London), and she makes regular television and radio appearances on outlets including the BBC, among others. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two children.