The Story of a Heart by Dr. Rachel Clarke
Nonfiction
2024
Finished on January 20, 2026
Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)
Publisher's Blurb:
A riveting and inspiring true story of two families linked by one heart—written by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor.
The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope. In The Story of a Heart, Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two children—one of whom desperately needs a new heart.
One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.
Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family—in what Clarke calls “the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery.”
The act of Keira’s heart resuming its rhythm inside Max’s body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK’s laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira’s mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter’s heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet. This is the unforgettable story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira’s heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.
One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keira’s parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.
Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Max’s parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another family—in what Clarke calls “the brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery.”
The act of Keira’s heart resuming its rhythm inside Max’s body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UK’s laws around organ donation. Following his successful surgery, Keira’s mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughter’s heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet. This is the unforgettable story of how one family’s grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keira’s heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.
Last year a couple of my friends read The Story of a Heart, giving it such high praise that last week I decided to borrow a copy from the library. I find that if I don't already own a book, it's too easy to forget about those that are on my friends' year-end favorites' lists. Unless it's a auto-buy author, I try not to buy every book that lands on my radar.
The Story of a Heart is a short book (220 pages, excluding the notes), but it wasn't one I could zip through quickly. The author doesn't simply tell the story of the two families and how their lives intersect, but provides extensive background on the history of new technologies in medicine. Ventilators, skin grafts, artificial heart-lung machines, LVADs (a titanium and gold HeartWare left ventricular assist device), are just a few that Dr. Clarke incorporates in her book. While not dry or too technical, these clinical details pulled me out of the story at hand, ultimately holding me back from what could have been a real tear-jerker. My heart went out to both families, reminding me of the importance of organ donation.
"In the back of my mind, I know nothing I say can make their day any worse because they've already lost their loved one. This is the worst day of their life. But if I can give them a slight bit of hope and comfort by offering organ donation as part of end-of-life care, then that's what I need to do. It's not a taboo topic. It's a normal part of critical care. If someone meets the criteria to be an organ donor and we're not offering it to them, then I'm not doing my patient justice, I'm not being their advocate. The foundation of who I am as a nurse is trying to support the family however I can. Organ donation can help a family feel as though something good has come out of an awful situation, so it can be incredibly positive." (Sarah Crosby, specialist nurse)
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