In March 1996, forty-eight-year-old Albert Morrow spent several days recovering in a hospital bed in Georgia after a successful kidney transplant. Relegated to a strict diet and controlled fluid intake, his multiple requests for a glass of cold milk were denied by the healthcare staff present.
Even in his sleep, the nurses heard him mumbling about drinking milk and eating chocolate chip cookies. During a visit, Albert’s wife, Joyce, learned of her husband’s craving for milk and complained that it must be a reaction to the medication, as Albert was lactose intolerant and had had dairy in some form for over thirty years avoided.
A few days earlier, on a cool evening outside the family farm, Shaun McGregor and his friend Bobby sat outside Shaun’s barn and felt the heavy weight of small-town boredom in rural Alabama. Fueled by thirst and an endless desire to race the mostly empty dirt roads, the teenage boys decided to run to the town’s only gas station and general store.
Bobby opted for a small two-wheeled motorcycle, while Shaun opted for a three-wheeled all-terrain vehicle. During their ride, Shaun took a shortcut through the trees along a very narrow path created by the wheels beneath him. Arriving at the store seconds before his friend, he declared himself the winner of their unofficial race and his prize would be the purchase of his drink.
The boys sat on the sidewalk on the other side of the store. Bobby drank a fizzy drink and Shaun typically drank whole milk when nine o’clock rolled around. The grumpy store owner turned the sign hanging behind the glass to reveal the word “closed.”
Before locking the entrance door, he shouted impatiently at the boys to go home, as if their presence had any effect on his ability to close up shop and retire for the night. He called their presence after dark a violation of the city’s curfew, but the tone and volume of his voice would indicate that their crime was much more egregious.
The teens ignored the old man’s incessant ranting and enjoyed their drinks. Moments later, the boys saw a police car pull into the parking lot. The sheriff often patrolled local businesses and observed the stores for signs of vandalism or burglary. The store owner excitedly waved at the officer and came out through the glass entrance door, mumbling and pointing at the boys.
The teens were immediately scared and ran to their bikes. For no other reason than to reach the tricycle first, Bobby jumped into the seat, turned the key Shaun had left in the ignition, and sped down the road.
Shaun quickly climbed onto the two-wheeled motorcycle and chased after his friend. They were still picking up speed as the red flashing lights filled the night around them. If they had taken a moment to consider their transgression, the officer might have simply told them to go home and, at worst, escorted the boys there. With their adrenaline high, the scared teens acted out of instinctive fear rather than sound judgment.
Bobby took advantage of his all-terrain vehicle and disappeared down the narrow path that wound through dense trees and vegetation. Forced to stay on the main road, Shaun reached the maximum bicycle speed of fifty miles per hour and maintained it until the sheriff’s patience wore off.
When he called his dispatch to report the chase, he was asked if he could stop the cycle.
“When I bump into him.” His response was also his immediate action. He accelerated and clamped the bike’s rear wheel with his front fender. The motorcycle crashed into the road and then flipped several times after Shaun’s body was sent into the air, where it would eventually end up nearly forty feet away on the dirt road.
An ambulance soon arrived and found a lifeless boy amid torn metal. Albert spent the next eleven years in fairly good health as a result of Shaun’s donor status. Although tragic, Shaun’s accident saved Albert’s life and left him with very little time. The doctor had predicted a very short life unless a kidney could be found. Although she was happy that her husband was alive and well, Joyce observed curious personality traits, not previously existent, that presented him as a completely different person.
Fully recovered from the transplant, Joyce found her usually gentle and stoic husband much more youthful, carefree and even childlike. For example, the self-described couch potato bought his and her bikes and they enjoyed evening rides together. Joyce was surprised by his new interest, but ultimately concluded that her husband was understandably making the most of his extended life on earth.
Furthermore, despite his system’s resistance to dairy, Albert consumed milk daily. He often complained of the irritating gas resulting from the ingestion, but still continued to consume dairy products.
The once quiet, reserved man adopted a second language by using profanity. Far from being prudish, Joyce found it unnecessary and unattractive to her loving husband. Joyce almost fell over when Albert brought home an adopted kitten. Her husband had owned more than a dozen dogs over the years together and let them chase the neighborhood’s feral cats while chuckling at their fear of cats. However, his irreverence for the species was not completely abandoned when he named his new pet ‘Dummy’.
Albert’s death in 2007 was sad for Joyce, but she found comfort in the gift of the extra eleven years she enjoyed with her longtime companion. She had long wanted to thank the young boy’s mother, who graciously allowed his kidney to be used to save her husband. Feeling that enough time had passed to express such gratitude, Joyce wrote her a letter.
Unable to obtain Shaun’s mother’s confidential name and contact information, she asked the organ donor network that transported Shaun’s life-saving kidney to deliver her letter, and they agreed.
Shaun’s mother, Andrea, read Joyce’s words of gratitude and immediately called her phone number provided in the letter. The women talked for almost an hour. She asked Andrea to tell her about her son. What she learned left her speechless.
Shaun liked milk. He drank it all day, every day.
When asked if he had any pets, Andrea said he had several cats. One in particular, who he was very fond of, lived in the house, while the others lived out on the farm. He affectionately called the cat ‘Dopey’.
She explained that he enjoyed riding all kinds of bicycles. Andrea told Joyce about the accident and lamented the lack of justice afforded the sheriff for his actions. Joyce asked why the boy had chosen to become a donor at such a young age.
Andrea explained that Shaun had a good relationship with his grandfather, Albert, and when he decided to become an organ donor, he took Shaun along for bonding time and registered him as well. They had a close relationship and a strong friendship, but Andrea resented the grandfather’s excessive use of profanity, which Shaun quickly adopted as a daily occurrence.
Joyce tried to lighten the mood by noting that her husband’s name happened to be Albert.
Andrea paused for a moment before noticing that Shaun’s middle name was also Albert. After previously watching a transplant-themed television program, Joyce had come to the idea that some of her husband’s new preferences and habits might be related to the transfer of the kidney, more specifically the person to whom it once belonged.
When Albert died in 2011, 28,535 organ transplants were performed, according to Donate Life America statistics. The most common were the heart, cornea and kidneys. A study published in the journal Quality of Life Research found that twenty-one percent of cornea and kidney transplant patients studied reported significant changes in their personality, with six percent citing a drastic change after receiving a new heart.
Storing memories in organs is known as combinatorial coding by nerve cells and works directly with the sensory system. The phenomenon of cell memory is still supported by many scientists and doctors.
By means of Gare Allen
