A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy's Gift to Medical Science
Written by Sarah Gray
Narrated by Sarah Gray
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A donor mother’s powerful memoir of grief and rebirth that is also a fascinating medical science whodunit, taking us inside the world of organ, eye, tissue, and blood donation and cutting-edge scientific research.
When Sarah Gray received the devastating news that her unborn son Thomas was diagnosed with anencephaly, a terminal condition, she decided she wanted his death—and life—to have meaning. In the weeks before she gave birth to her twin sons in 2010, she arranged to donate Thomas’s organs. Due to his low birth weight, they would go to research rather than transplant. As transplant donors have the opportunity to meet recipients, Sarah wanted to know how Thomas's donation would be used.
That curiosity fueled a scientific odyssey that leads Sarah to some of the most prestigious scientific facilities in the country, including Harvard, Duke, and the University of Pennsylvania. Pulling back the curtain of protocol and confidentiality, she introduces the researchers who received Thomas’s donations, held his liver in their hands, studied his cells under the microscope.
Sarah’s journey to find solace and understanding takes her beyond her son’s donations—offering a breathtaking overview of the world of medical research and the valiant scientists on the horizon of discovery. She goes behind the scenes at organ procurement organizations, introducing skilled technicians for whom death means saving lives, empathetic counselors, and the brilliant minds who are finding surprising and inventive ways to treat and cure disease through these donations. She also shares the moving stories of other donor families.
A Life Everlasting is an unforgettable testament to hope, a tribute to life and discovery, and a portrait of unsung heroes pushing the boundaries of medical science for the benefit of all humanity.
Sarah Gray
Sarah Gray is a donor parent; an organ, eye, tissue, and blood donation advocate; and a public speaker. She is the director of communications for the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) in McLean, Virginia, and regularly speaks around the country. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband, Ross; their son, Callum; and their daughter, Jocelyn. SarahGray.com
Related to A Life Everlasting
Related audiobooks
Cancer, You Picked The Wrong Girl: A True Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDuty of Care: One Doctor's Story of the Covid-19 Crisis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patient Care Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cause of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slow Dancing with a Stranger: Lost and Found in the Age of Alzheimer's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Struck: A Husband's Memoir of Trauma and Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exhale: Hope, Healing, and Life in Transplant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Blood Breaks Down: Life Lessons from Leukemia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Hot Light: Twenty-Five Years in Emergency Medicine Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Why We Hurt: The Natural History of Pain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loving Large: A Mother's Rare Disease Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCancerland: A Medical Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dance Me to the End: Ten Months and Ten Days with ALS Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deep Water Dream: A Medical Voyage of Discovery in Rural Northern Ontario Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Helpers: Profiles from the Front Lines of the Pandemic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Counting Backwards: A Doctor's Notes on Anesthesia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neurology Rounds with the Maverick: Adventures with Patients from the Golden Age of Medicine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, a Family's Genetic Destiny, and the Science That Rescued Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Have I Cheated Death?: A Short and Merry Life With Cystic Fibrosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvery Deep-Drawn Breath: A Critical Care Doctor on Healing, Recovery, and Transforming Medicine in the ICU Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Silent Siren: Memoirs of a Life Saving Mortician Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heart: An American Medical Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not My Father's Son: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angela's Ashes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for A Life Everlasting
8 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So, this book made me cry, repeatedly, and surprisingly, in a good way. I'd had this book on my to-read pile for a while and I was reluctant to read it because books about dead babies don't exactly make for fun, light reading. Thankfully, this book, while heartbreaking at times, is also filled with hope and gratitude. After learning that one of her twin sons had a fatal condition and would not live long, the author made the decision to donate his remains to medical research and this book tells the tale of how those donations were used and the incredible resulting research. There's a lot of information about how organ donation works, the medical research which can only be done with human tissue donation, and intriguing hope for treatments made possible by donations. And yes, I'm sentimental enough that a story about people helping others and medical research that leads to curing disease brings me tears of joy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Along with great information on the value of medical research to save lives, the author shares incredibly personal and touching stories of people who made the decision to face the death of a child with a desire to make that death meaningful.