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The Ventilator

With the full extent of Max鈥檚 heart condition laid bare, the emergency services race to reach Keira after a devastating car accident. Read by the author.

When nine-year old Keira suffers catastrophic injuries in a car accident, her devastated family agree that she would have wanted to be an organ donor. Meanwhile in another part of the country Max has been hospitalised for almost a year with a virus that is causing his young heart to fail. When Max's parents receive the call they've been longing for, they know it comes at unimaginable cost to another family.

Dr Rachel Clarke follows the journey of the heart from Keira to Max with compassion and clarity in a book long-listed for the Baillie Gifford Prize. Exploring the history of the medical innovations in transplantation that led us here, she meets some of the physicians, nurses, scientists and surgeons whose knowledge and dedication make this remarkable procedure possible.

Here, at the start of the heart鈥檚 journey, paramedics race to reach Keira at the scene of the accident.

Written and read by Rachel Clarke
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

14 minutes

Last on

Wed 11 Sep 2024 00:30

Broadcasts

  • Tue 10 Sep 2024 11:45
  • Wed 11 Sep 2024 00:30