A young woman is stopped at the airport and the security guards can’t believe their eyes. She has a human heart in a vacuum-packed plastic bag.
Jessica Manning, a 30-year-old transplant patient from New Zealand, told the New Zealand Herald about an encounter with security staff at an Australian airport. Manning, who received a new heart eight years ago, always carries the old organ with her.
Eventually she was able to convince airport staff that her peculiar hand luggage did not pose a security risk – “I spent an hour trying to get that damn heart to Australia,” she told the newspaper.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Manning suffered from heart defects since birth, which led to several heart surgeries during her childhood. She suffered heart failure at age 19 and was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis at age 22. After a long wait, Manning finally received her much-needed double heart and liver transplant.
It was like a rebirth for the woman: “I couldn’t even remember what ‘normal’ felt like anymore,” she told the newspaper. When asked what the best thing was after the operation, Manning replied: “I could breathe again.”
She decided to keep her old heart. She was inspired by the Maori belief that the body should be returned as God created it. She wanted to bury the heart in a meaningful piece of land and plant a tree on it, Manning told the Herald.
The courageous woman used her second chance in life to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation. She even started a petition calling for organ donation to be compulsory in New Zealand. A similar regulation is also being hotly debated in Germany. The problem here, as there, is the low willingness to donate.
However, an obligation is hardly constitutionally feasible in Germany. Nevertheless, eight federal states in the Bundesrat are currently pushing for a so-called opt-out solution, as the “Tagesschau” reports. This would reverse the current regulation, whereby those willing to donate must carry an organ donor card with them at all times to record their willingness.
Under the new law, anyone who does not express their objection through the organ donation register, an organ donation card or a living will would automatically be considered a donor. The concept was already put to a vote in the state chamber in 2020, but did not find a majority at the time. According to “Tagesschau”, the Federal Council’s Health Committee is currently discussing the draft.
Moment of shock at the football festival: Police officers shot down an armed attacker on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. The situation is secure, the background is still unclear.
After her mother’s death, Sophie Weber clears out her completely trashed apartment. And remembers her childhood and youth near Stuttgart, when she didn’t even have her own bed.
