I did a previous blog, taken from a podcast that Spock is a fan of. Many of the stories are medical or crime mysteries, but some, like the one I did before about Clint Eastwood's extraordinary early life are inspiring and lovely. This is another such true tale.

A young American lad called Karl was very sporty from an early age. He enjoyed all sports, and wanted to follow a career in that field. He was not sure which particular sport to focus on.

One day when he was 11 a famous baseball player called Rod Carew came to give a talk at his school, afterwards signing autographs and talking to young fans. This settled it, Karl was going to take that path.

He was very successful, despite losing a couple of years to recover from a bad injury. One day he was training at the gym when he felt something snap in his head. His mother was a nurse, and got him straight to hospital. He had suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage, and died before emergency could be carried out. He had recently had to renew his driving licence, and had ticked a box giving consent for organ donations. Being such a young and healthy man he was a perfect candidate for donation.

His family was surprised when told they had a man in his 70's who was a match, they thought it would help someone younger.They were told that this man was a very fit and active person until a major heart attack. He was desperate for a transplant. It was very successful. When the family were put in touch with the man it turned out to be none other than Rod Carew, the man who inspired Karl to success.

It turned out that the 2 families lived quite close, became friends and Rod told Karl's mother "Whenever you want to hear your boy's heart beating you come to me". 

Val

A Moodscope member