Transplant debate, murder or medicine?
Caribbean Life, October 16-22, 2020 37
Book cover of “The Organ Thieves.”
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
It gives you such a great feeling.
Yep, generosity: you can’t beat
it. To hand over a gift, to watch
someone smile, that’s the best.
Providing a life-saving item or
needed supply gives you a warmfuzzy
from your toes on up. You
can’t beat the feeling you get from
giving but, as in the new book
“The Organ Thieves” by Chip
Jones, be sure your heart is in the
right place.
Because of its unique location,
easy to reach, just north of
the South, the Medical College of
Virginia in Richmond enjoyed a
stellar surgical reputation in the
1960s.
The “MCV” had overcome so
much: almost literally, its closets
were full of skeletons from
Civil-War-era resurrectionists and
early-20th-century human experiments.
Racism was an ongoing
issue, too. But in 1966, the optimism
within MCV’s walls came
from two surgeons, both hoping
to become pioneers in heart
transplantation.
Doctors David Hume and
Richard Lower were both experienced
in transplanting organs
in animals and in humans, and
both were well-regarded enough
for South African surgeon Dr.
Christiaan Barnard to request
time to work with and learn from
them. But transplanting a heart,
human-to-human, would be different
than anything they’d done
before. There was no chance to
rush; they had to get it right,
while being mindful of ethical
matters.
Where is the line between life
and death? Technology available
in 1967 couldn’t answer that
question enough, and therein lay
the dilemma. The obvious best
donor then was still alive but not
really; the obvious best recipient
of a transplant was otherwise
in great health. These were not
the only considerations, but they
were the biggest.
There were laws to follow, and
rules to heed, but shortly after
Barnard beat Hume and Lower in
the race to be first with a human
heart transplant, the pressure
was on. Waiting in the wings
was an ailing white businessman
with a bad heart. So when a fifty
four-year-old Black man was
brought to the hospital with head
injuries, the surgeons made their
moves…
Murder, or medical marvel?
When it comes to health-related
breakthroughs like that in “The
Organ Thieves,” we often read of
“firsts” but not-so-often about
subsequent, likewise notable, milestones
achieved, and even more
rarely of controversy tied to the
event. But here, author Chip Jones
tells all of the above, anchored by
accusations of crime with racism
at their core, a tale that still lingers
for many concerned.
That’s heartbreaking and
painful to read about, although
some may argue that there was a
modicum of gain here, in medical
knowledge and in eventual legislation.
Also up for debate: did a laterfamous
surgeon have a role in the
push to break the rules? Were
those rules even broken? Jones
leaves courtroom records – and
readers to self-argue these details
of that day in 1968.
Though this is a nonfiction
book, fans of medical thrillers
will devour it. Readers who love
true medicine stories, history,
and courtroom drama will love it,
too, so find “The Organ Thieves”
because you can’t beat it.
“The Organ Thieves: The
Shocking Story of the First
Heart Transplant in the
Segregated South” by Chip
Jones
c.2020, Gallery Books
$28.00 / $37.00 Canada
390 pages
Chip Jones, author of “The Organ Thieves.” Jay Paul
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