Most people have certain dates and times forever etched in their minds: The date they met their spouse. The day a famous person died. The hour and minute of a child’s birth. People who owe their lives to organ transplants have some of the most dramatic memories.
For Jim Carns, they include Sept. 22, 2013 at 7:15 a.m. That’s when the phone rang and he learned a donated lung was available. He and his wife, Karen, were getting ready for church. They had no idea when this call would come, but they were already packed. By 10 a.m. they were at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. At 11 a.m. Carns was wheeled into an operating room. At 11:05 a.m. he glimpsed a clock — his last memory before anesthesia took hold and he awoke with his first transplanted lung.
Read Jim’s full story here