Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 - 12:30 pm

My phone rings and I find myself talking to Martha again. I haven't spoken to her since I got the good news several months before. Her voice is as always cheerful, but she tells me that I might not be so happy once she tells me the news. My recipient has had a relapse and died. I'm stunned but not entirely surprised. He was in his sixties and the transplant is risky under even the best of circumstances, with about a one-in-three chance of being successful. But the last I'd heard was that he was doing well and had checked out of the clinic and gone home. I had assumed that his recovery was progressing and he was moving on with his life. Finding out that he'd died was an unexpected end to this journey. Martha asks if I want to stay on the registry. I reply that I do, update my information, and then hang up. I'm not really sure how to feel at this point, but there's work to do, so sorting this out will have to wait until later.