Konrad & Carew: How an NFL player’s donated heart saved life of a baseball Hall of Famer

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 04/14/2017 | DANIEL BROWN

[Kid Shelleen]

---snip--- Reuland died of a brain aneurysm Dec. 12 and his organs were donated, as per his wishes. The family knew only that Konrad’s kidney went to a Southern California woman in her 60s, his liver went to a male in his 50s and, most notably, his heart and other kidney went to a 71-year-old man in south Orange County.

By the time of the funeral, friends who had read about Rod Carew’s recent heart transplant in Los Angeles were putting two and two together. They pulled Mary aside and asked if it was possible: Do you think Konrad saved Carew? Did the heart of an NFL player wind up in the chest of a baseball Hall of Famer?

[Gay State Conservative]

This is great to hear.I worked for years in a large hospital which performed the first kidney transplant and saw the miracles that can come from a new kidney...heart....lung.I used to be a designated organ donor on my license but I was recently advised that neither my heart nor kidneys are normal enough to be transplanted.

[NonValueAdded]

Do you believe in coincidences? /rhetorical

[toothfairy86]

I remember the story about Rod Carew’s daughter. They had trouble getting a match because the wife is Jewish, and that was such an unusual mix. They did manage to get a bunch of people tested and into the bone marrow registry though.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Rod Carew once told SF Giants owner Bob Lurie that he’d call him the following morning of his decision whether or not to accept Mr. Lurie’s contract offer. He never called. It prompted a local sportswriter to say “A man is as good as his word”.

[real saxophonist]

I saw a news story about this today. Didn’t realize it was Rod Carew. I don’t know, if somebody got one of my organs, they’d probably die sooner.

[PAR35]

Mickey Mantle moved to the top of the transplant list (liver) even though his other health problems should have disqualified him. That made me realize how corrupt the transplant industry was. In turned out that he only needed the liver, which might have given someone else years more of living, for a couple of months.

Mantle had to languish on the transplant list a full 24 hours before one was procured for him.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Think David Crosby. Needed a new liver after a lifetime of abusing drugs + a couple of years in prison. He’s alive so we can listen to his leftist rants while he performs. He shouldn’t be alive.

[EveningStar]

SoCal Ping!



Attention Southern Californians

Please ping me with any Southern California related articles. Thank you!

If you want on or off this ping list, please FReepmail me.

[truth_seeker]

Great story. Carew became very popular in The OC. Loss of his daughter was tragic.

Now his come back from near death, via another pro athlete is nice.

As a player, he was among the guys that were “naturals.”