Heart Recipient Kills Self Just Like Donor

[RedGlitter]

I know, it's gloomy, but that's not why I'm posting it. I know our modern age says it can't happen, but I often wonder if blood and organ donors take on a little more than just the donor's gift. Is it possible that they can take on some of the coding in a donor's system? Could there have been something in the donor's heart that "made" this man kill himself in the same fashion the donor did? After my mom received blood transfusions, we noticed little differences in her personality. This was probably just due to what she'd been through but I would kid her and say "Mom, just whose blood did they give you anyway? You never used to do________ or be like this."

Heart Transplant Patient Kills Himself in Same Manner as Donor

Monday, April 07, 2008



HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — A man who received a heart transplant 12 years ago and later married the donor's widow died the same way the donor did, authorities said: of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No foul play was suspected in 69-year-old Sonny Graham's death at his Vidalia, Ga., home, investigators said. He was found Tuesday in a utility building in his backyard with a single shotgun wound to the throat, said Greg Harvey, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Graham, who was director of the Heritage golf tournament at Sea Pines from 1979 to 1983, was on the verge of congestive heart failure in 1995 when he got a call that a heart was available in Charleston.

That heart was from Terry Cottle, 33, who had shot himself, Berkeley County Coroner Glenn Rhoad said.

Grateful for his new heart, Graham began writing letters to the donor's family to thank them. In January 1997, Graham met his donor's widow, Cheryl Cottle, then 28, in Charleston.

"I felt like I had known her for years," Graham told The (Hilton Head) Island Packet for a story in 2006. "I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I just stared."

In 2001, Graham bought a home for Cottle and her four children in Vidalia. Three years later, they were married after Graham retired from his job as a plant manager for Hargray Communications in Hilton Head.

From their previous marriages, the couple had six children and six grandchildren scattered across South Carolina and Georgia.

Cheryl Graham, now 39, has worked at several hospices in Vidalia. A telephone message left Sunday at a listing for Cheryl and Sonny Graham in Vidalia was not immediately returned.



Sonny Graham's friends said he would be remembered for his willingness to help people.

"Any time someone had a problem, the first reaction was, 'Call Sonny Graham,' " said Bill Carson, Graham's friend for more than 40 years. "It didn't matter whether you had a flat tire on the side of the road or your washing machine didn't work. He didn't even have to know you to help you."





---------------- Listening to: Classical - Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Phantom of the Opera) cathedral pipe organ via FoxyTunes

[RedGlitter]

Jester;830044 wrote: I have donor bone in my spine from a previous injury/surgery. I know its from a woman, I'm absolutely positive of it.


How can you tell, Jester? Is it just intuition?

[along-for-the-ride]

I heard about that incident on the news today. Such a tragedy. I'm wondering what the widow is feeling.

[Pheasy]

Jester;830174 wrote: I woke up from the surgery a heck of a lot more sensitive!:wah:


:wah: Can you multi-task now too :wah:

[Nomad]

Hmmm...

Two guys married to the same woman blow their brains out.