As an operating room nurse, Susan Mastrangelo is quite familiar with the process of harvesting donor organs. At Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro, New Jersey, where she works, doctors partner closely with the nonprofit Gift of Life to find suitable matches for patients awaiting a transplant.
But in Mastrangelo’s experience, and that of many of her colleagues, “all we see is the organs taken away,” she said. “We never know where they’re going to end up, or the process on the other end.”
This winter, however, Mastrangelo got a first-hand glimpse into the other side of things as her daughter, Danielle, underwent a double lung transplant to correct complications from cystic fibrosis.
Read the rest of Susan’s story here.