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Show Fair Forever 183 Postscript Every day, hundreds of children are waiting for donor organs. As of this writing, 240 children under the age of eighteen are waiting for a new heart in the U.S. alone. Another 250 young adults between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five are also on the list. Remarkably, Bradley Gifford has a 90% chance of living a full year following his transplant, and a 70% survival rate after five years. I have little doubt that he will be strong enough to row to the lighthouse in the spring. To fit the timeline of this story, I have compressed Bradley's healing somewhat, but only marginally. Special thanks to Dr. Donald P. Strong, cardiologist, for his input. For information regarding organ transplants, I recommend the United Network for Organ Sharing at http://www.unos.org. |
