A Change of Heart - A Memoir (Paperback)

A Change of Heart is the amazing true story of one woman's journey to the outer limits of medicine and the spirit. To save her life from a rare lung disease, Claire Sylvia underwent a heart-and-lung transplant. Her chest was sawed open, her diseased organs cut out, and in their place were grafted the heart and lungs of an eighteen-year-old man who had just died in a motorcycle accident. When she survived the surgery, she was sure that her great adventure was finally over. In fact, it was just beginning. Even as she lay recovering in Intensive Care, Claire began to feel the presence of something or someone else within her. At first terrified and then fascinated, she soon noticed that her attitudes, habits, and tastes had changed. She had inexplicable cravings for food she had previously disliked. She found herself drawn toward cool colors and no longer dressed in the vibrant reds and oranges she used to love. And she started behaving with an aggressiveness and impetuosity she had previously never shown. Five months after the operation she had a remarkable dream in which she met a young man named Tim L., a man she absolutely knew was her donor. Thus began the second part of Claire's miraculous journey - to confirm whether or not the new personality within her was actually that of her donor. Along the way, she struggled with profound and timeless questions: Where does body end and spirit begin? Is it possible to live on after death? How does one learn to accept this awesome gift? In a deeply moving and dramatic encounter, Claire finally meets the "family of my heart, " finds some of the answers she had been looking for, and comes to understand the surprising bequest of love from the dead to the living.