A Michigan man has a second chance at life thanks to a heart transplant. The donor: his 22-year-old daughter, the youngest of his six children.
Chester Szuber, 58, of Berkley, Mich., is expected to fully recover - news that must make Patti Szuber "the happiest little angel in heaven," her brother Bob said Thursday.
Patti died after being injured in a car wreck Aug. 18 while vacationing in Tennessee's Smokey Mountains.
Chester Szuber had three open-heart surgeries, and had been on Michigan's transplant list for nearly four years.
The family knew Patti, a nursing student, had signed an organ donor card.
They had two choices: donate her organs without restriction or specify an individual on the waiting list they knew.
After long discussion, they decided donating her heart to her father "was what Patti would have wanted beyond a shadow of a doubt."
Monday, after Patti was declared brain dead, her heart was stopped, packed in ice and flown to Michigan's William Beaumont Hospital, where her father was in surgery.
At 9:47 a.m., it was restarted in her father's body.
Her liver and kidneys were donated to other recipients.
Transplant experts say the daughter-father donation may be the first of its kind.
Bob Szuber acknowledged "there will be some tough times" for the family.
But his dad feels it's "a joy to have Patti's heart."
The driver of the car in which Patti was riding was treated for minor injuries and charged with drunken driving.
