Three Lives for One Heart

I killed a patient to save three others and I'd do it again. The transplant list had five names.

One donor heart just arrived. But here's what they don't tell you in med school.

Sometimes you have to choose who dies. The forty year old father had the worst prognosis.

Six months max. The three teenagers waiting? They had decades ahead.

I made the call. Gave his heart to the sickest teen. Used his lungs and liver for the other

two. His wife screamed at me in the hallway. Called me a monster. She wasn't wrong.

I watched him code while prepping the others for surgery. Held his hand as the monitors went

flat. Then I ran to OR two and saved those kids. My attending reported