Woman Keeps Her Heart In Her Bedroom After Receiving Life-Saving Transplant
Having a heart transplant is perhaps one of the most serious operations you could have. Unfortunately, there is also a waiting list for individuals who want a new heart, so it is difficult to make it to the top of the list.
A woman in New Zealand was able to make it on the list and even had a heart transplant, but she did something that most people would not expect.
She kept her old heart in a plastic bag, and she is doing so for all the right reasons.
After posting a video on TikTok that gave some details as to why she was doing it, she got millions of views. She said: “I always knew having my heart and educating about organ donation would be controversial.”
The 29-year-old Jessica Manning says she keeps the bag in her bedroom, which many people find unusual.
Manning suffered from a number of heart defects since she was born and eventually, she was living with half a heart. She referred to her heart as being similar to cookie dough and she went through hundreds of cardiovascular procedures along with two open-heart surgeries by the time she was three years old.
@jessica.elenanz ⚠️TW ⚠️ 🙃🙃 5 heart surgeries, 1 pacemaker surgery, 1 emergency lung surgery, over 200 minor procedures , heart and liver transplant & a cardiac arrest repair 👍🏽 #heartdisease #oppsididitagain #fyp #nztiktok #newzealand #liverdisease #surgerytiktok #medical #usa #foryou #hearttransplant #livertransplant #uk ♬ original sound – Jude
She said: “My biggest heart surgery was my Fontan, which connects the heart to the pulmonary artery using a tube, that was almost like a reconstruction of my heart.” Eventually, she was able to get a heart donation and transplant when she was 25.
Originally, she wanted to give her heart to science but 10 months later, they gave it back saying they didn’t need it. That is when she decided to hang onto it for herself.
Most people would think this was rather strange, but she is doing it for all the right reasons. She is doing so to honor the individual who saved her life with a new heart.
She said: “When I purchase a house I want to bury it and plant a tree on top and dedicate it to my donor.”
She went on to say: “Achieving my goals and doing all the things I love is to celebrate that my donor is still living.”
@jessica.elenanz Reply to @ana.26x ♬ original sound – Jess 🤍
Even though this is not something that everybody would do, it is something that seems to be honorable. The commenters were all over the place when it came to what they had to say, from supportive to feeling a little freaked out by what they had just seen.
