Today's news that former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering from undergoing heart transplant surgery sends me right back to the worst day of my life, when I became the sister of a heart transplant donor.
When it was first announced that Cheney needed a new heart, The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog, posed the question: "When will Dick Cheney be too old for a heart transplant?"
Cheney discussed his ongoing heart ailments and the possibility of a heart transplant during an interview on the Today Show. When I saw that, and when I read the Journal, I wrote this about why it was the wrong question.
I wrote as a person who lost the dearest person on earth to me, my brother, who was an organ donor and a perfect match for everything. He was a great, great connector in life, a bridge between so many disparate people. In death, it turns out, he was as well.
It was not about politics or other poisons. It was about watching someone you love die, or not exactly die, but lying in that awful, awful, purgatory required for you to respect their wishes to continue giving life even in death. It was about being the family member designated to sit in that conference room with the very kind organ donation coordinator, answering questions about body parts and final wishes.
Did he use drugs?
No. He was a body-is-temple vegan.
Was he athletic?
Yes. Ran marathons. Had a newborn.
Patient had a history of...
Patient had a history of enormous warmth, of the most expansive level of compassion and empathy most folks have ever encountered, of a lion's roar of a laugh, of an unquenchable desire to build up broken souls and broken systems.
Was Dick Cheney Too Old to get a Heart Transplant?
Wrong question. Here's the right one.