We could clearly relate to families in the film, and the patients, each with life-threatening conditions, in need of transplant. The most riveting part for us, was the story of a family faced with the loss of a loved one and the choice to donate organs. The most poignant segment of the film was the series of highly orchestrated, high stakes, medically-magical events that take place when harvesting and transporting the donated organs to their respective recipients.
The night of Porter's transplant, obviously, our mind was on Porter. I do remember briefly thinking about the donor and the situation of the donor family and how Porter's new organ was coming to us following of the death of another person, but those thoughts were fleeting. The entire day of Porter's transplant is the clearest memory I have of all the days of transplant and recovery for him. This film helped me see and understand what the donor family was going through that exact same day.
The video is currently available to view on the PBS website (as of Sept 27), with no further air dates listed. We recommend you watch this hour long film. It may be a little outdated by the time Porter is ready to watch, but we definitely plan to watch it with him.
