This happened a while ago, but it's just making headlines now. There's a woman from Portland, Oregon named Tammy Griffin who has cystic fibrosis. And back in 2016, she needed a heart-and-lung transplant, or she'd die.
She'd been on a waiting list for over two years. But she was in her 50s. And because of her age and condition, she wasn't an ideal candidate.
So her doctors came up with an idea where she COULD get a transplant.
Tammy's heart was perfectly healthy. But it had shifted in her chest. And for some reason, she had to have BOTH her lungs and heart replaced.
So her doctors did a rare "domino" transplant, where one person gets a new heart and lungs from someone who died, and gives THEIR heart to someone else.
Tammy's heart went to a woman in northern California named Linda Karr. And the surgery went great. It happened in February of 2016 . . . they got to meet about six weeks later . . . and they're still friends.
And how crazy is this? They still get together sometimes. And whenever they do, Tammy can listen to her OWN HEART beating in someone else's chest.
(Desert News / Stanford)
(Here's a photo. Tammy's on the left.)
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