Strange

Heart Transplant Recipient Dies as Donor Did, by Suicide

by PEP | April 7, 2008 at 08:37 am

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This is a totally weird story. Man gets heart from suicide victim. Gets in touch with family. Marries donor's widow. Kills self like donor did.

There's been speculation, and some movies, about the notion that something of a donor lives on. True or false? Even stranger here, the second link: marrying the same person.

This time, the heart went into the grave.

When Terry Cottle killed himself more than 12 years ago, his heart lived on in former Hilton Head Island resident Sonny Graham.

Grateful for the transplant that saved his life, Graham wrote tothank the Cottle family. Through that correspondence, he met CherylCottle, his donor's widow. Then the unexpected happened -- they fell inlove and married.

Earlier this week, the unexpected happened again, when Graham's life ended the same way Terry Cottle's did.

On Tuesday, Graham took his own life at his home in Vidalia, Ga. He was 69.

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Caoimhin1

at 11:49 on April 7th, 2008

It must have been a broken heart! :(

Rachel Nixon

at 12:18 on April 7th, 2008

People also talk about inheriting the "memories" of the donor from whom they received an organ, as well as personality changes. This is fascinating stuff but I don't how much evidence there is about this sort of thing.