Woman Killed in Car Crash Donates Heart, to Her Father

Chester Szuber had waited nearly four years for a heart transplant and finally got one--from his own daughter, who was killed in a car wreck.

Patti Szuber, the youngest of his six children, was an exuberant 22-year-old nursing student who had insisted that she wanted her organs donated if she died.

The father decided that “it would be a joy to have Patti’s heart,” Patti’s brother, Bob Szuber, remembers him saying.

On Monday, her heart was flown from the Tennessee hospital where she had died only hours earlier to Michigan, where it was implanted and restarted in her father.

Chester Szuber, 58, was off a breathing machine by the morning after the surgery and was in good condition Thursday, said Dr. Jeffrey Altshuler, who performed the transplant operation.

Chester Szuber had been suffering life-threatening heartbeat irregularities and had undergone three open-heart surgeries and two angioplasties in the last 20 years to clear blockages.

Joel Newman, spokesman for the United Network for Organ Sharing in Richmond, Va., said the network doesn’t keep track of whether donors and recipients were related. But he said he was unaware of any other cases of a heart being designated for transplant to a blood relative.

Bob Szuber said the fact that his sister’s heart gave their father new life is helping the family cope with the tragedy. Her liver and kidneys were donated to other recipients.

“I’m sure down the road there will be some tough times,” he said, but he said his sister is “the happiest little angel in heaven.”