I was given a young man's heart - and started craving beer and Kentucky Fried Chicken. [transplant]

Daily Mail ^ | April 9, 2008 | Claire Sylvia

[xjcsa]

Yesterday, the Mail told the extraordinary story of how a heart transplant recipient in America committed suicide - just like the man whose heart he had received 12 years previously. In another extraordinary twist, it emerged that the recipient had also married the donor's former wife.

So can elements of a person's character - or even their soul - be transplanted along with a heart?

One woman who believes this to be the case is CLAIRE SYLVIA, a divorced mother of one.

She was 47 and dying from a disease called primary pulmonary hypertension when, in 1988, she had a pioneering heartlung transplant in America.

She was given the organs of an 18-year-old boy who had been killed in a motorcycle accident near his home in Maine.

Claire, a former professional dancer, then made an astonishing discovery: she seemed to be acquiring the characteristics, and cravings, of the donor.

Here, in an extract from her book A Change Of Heart, Claire tells her remarkable story...

[Hatteras]

"Yesterday, the Mail told the extraordinary story of how a heart transplant recipient in America committed suicide - just like the man whose heart he had received 12 years previously. In another extraordinary twist, it emerged that the recipient had also married the donor's former wife."

Duh! I'm no Columbo but even I could figure this one out...

[Paved Paradise]

People Mag did a story on this a couple of years ago - it was very interesting. There are many, many stories that support the idea that people obtaining organs exhibit some new likes or dislikes that were part and parcel of the donor’s life.

There are too many cases to dismiss this so readily. The theory is called “cell memory.” While these are just anecdotal cases and no serious study has been done, of which I am aware, people should not be too skeptical.

As a Christian, I think of the Genesis when God tells Cain that his brother’s blood is crying out to Him. I think there is something mystical about our bodies and because they are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, if one believes in Christian beliefs, then perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to find that who we are, our essence, permeates throughout our entire bodies and incorporates every cell.

[Paved Paradise]

Amen, Aquinas. I think there is much mystery involved. After all of my A&P classes, vascular pathology and other medical classes, I have learned there is so much we simply don’t understand as yet. Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

[LucyT]

“According to scientists, there are more than 70 documented cases of transplant patients taking on some of the personality traits of the organ donors.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/07/wheart107.xml

[mysterio]

Personality traits are not contained in the heart. They are contained in the brain. If a complete brain transplant is performed, the personality characteristics would be transferred. When a heart, kidney, or finger is transplanted, the traits do not follow. The changes in personality might be explained by the fact that the patient underwent major surgery and now has to take massive amounts of anti-rejection drugs. To discount the surgery and medicine as possible causes for any changes in traits is poor hypothesis formation.

[LucyT]

Uh, I report, you decide. That isn’t something pulled out of thin air.

[NonValueAdded]

I used to have antennae but then I got cable.

[vpintheak]

Poor pervert Woody, always confusing the wanker with the heart.

[trisham]

LOL!

[weegee]

The guy hungering for KFC and beer should be glad he wasn’t gifted a pig’s heart...

[Rum Tum Tugger]

I read elsewhere, about a year ago, that there is a school of thought that some thinking processes happen OUTSIDE THE BRAIN

I think that's absolutely true.

I've made many mistakes when I've allowed the part of my intelligence system that hangs between my legs to make decisions for me.

[weegee]

"Do you want a side of beans with that kidney?"

[fightinJAG]

I have the same experience transcribing. There’s no conscious processing of the words.

[weegee]

"Heeeeeeeyyyyy!!! You too?!!!!"

[fightinJAG]

This may be why there was so much emphasis placed on the power of blood, and avoiding ingesting blood, etc.

[fightinJAG]

I doubt that personality traits can be so neatly compartmentalized.

[Larry Lucido]

I used to have antennae but then I got cable.

I don't want to know where you plug it in.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The heart wants what it wants." - Woody Allen

In Woody's case, I don't think the heart was the organ in question.

[slightlyovertaxed]

I read a wonderful book several years ago called "Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers." In it, the author talks about, among other things, organ transplants.

According to the doctors surveyed in the book, most of them have tried to correlate transplant recipients and donors in terms of personality etc. with no avail. One doctor said that there seems to be some sort of "transference." For example, men who receive a new heart usually assume that the donor was a young stud and will begin making sexual comments to the nurses. Another man talks about thinking he got his heart from a young black girl who was in a car accident; instead, his donor was a 50 year old white man.

In other words, how many people decided that their donors were some way (young, sexual, aggressive) and as a result, began to act that way consciously or unconsciously? Considering that the best donors are going to be healthy and young, how is this surprising?

[slightlyovertaxed]

In fact (sorry for the double post), the more I read the article, the more I think that the woman “deliberately” took on the characteristics that she thought an 18 year old man should have: cravings for junk food, an exaggerated sense of masculinity, and so on. Since she knew about her donor almost immediately, I feel that this is at best a messy demonstration of so-called cellular memory and instead a testament to the power of suggestion.