Casper Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_13184541Mark Phillips, a York Tech graduate, was working toward becoming a truck driver when he was killed in a motorcycle wreck in 2007. His heart now beats inside Bob Moore, whose own heart had been giving out. Wendy Phillips, Mark s mother, recently met Moore and listened to her son s heartbeat. (Submitted)They were to meet at the Nittany Lion in the main lobby at the Hershey Medical Center. Wendy Phillips got there early. It was a big day for her. She was nervous. It was, she said, surreal. She was there for a couple of reasons. A friend of hers was having cancer surgery, and she drove him to the hospital and was awaiting the outcome. The other reason? She was meeting the man who had her son's heart beating in his chest. She had never seen a photo of him. She had spoken to him on the phone a couple of times. But when she spotted Bob Moore in the hallway about 30 feet away, she knew it was him. He was a big guy, barrel-chested with thick arms adorned with tattoos. That was the guy. It was a bittersweet meeting. Moore, 52, was there, alive, because Phillips' son had died. Mark Phillips was a 21-year-old graduate of York Tech. He worked as a diesel mechanic, but wanted to drive big rigs. He was working in that direction when the accident occurred. On Sept. 22, 2007, he was riding his Yamaha V Star on Route 30, heading toward Gettysburg, with his best friend and his father. He wasn't feeling well and was lagging behind when the two other riders made it through the light at Kenneth Road. A witness later told police that it looked like his motorcycle folded. It didn't. It flipped. His mother suspects that he became ill, threw up and while doing that, gripped the front brake too hard, causing the bike to flip.He wasn't wearing a helmet and suffered extensive brain injuries. Wendy Phillips had a message on her answering machine when she got home that afternoon. It was a police officer. Her son had been in an accident. She called the emergency department at York Hospital. The person she spoke with couldn't tell her whether her son was there, only that a motorcyclist had been brought in. When she arrived at the emergency department, the nurses wouldn't let her see her son. She saw him later that night, in intensive care. The doctors had induced a coma. His brain was swelling. The next afternoon, she watched the Eagles game in his room with him. He was an Eagles fan, and that day, she remembered, the Eagles were wearing their throwback uniforms. The Eagles won that game, beating Detroit, 56-21. For a couple of days, her son's condition seemed to stabilize. Then, three days after he was admitted to the hospital, things went horribly wrong. The Friday after the accident - Bike Night in York, a day her son had been looking forward to - she and her ex-husband made the heart-wrenching decision. Mark Phillips was gone. They signed the papers to harvest his organs. Perhaps someone else could live. Meanwhile, Bob Moore was in Hershey Medical Center, awaiting a new heart. He had lived with a damaged heart since 1993, when a bad case of bronchitis infected his heart and enlarged the organ to the size of a football. He had been in the hospital, waiting for a heart, for 5½ months. His days were running out. He was day-to-day. There were seven other people waiting for hearts in the hospital. On Sept. 29, 2007, Moore recalled, the nurse came into his room and told him, "They told us to get you ready. They have a heart." He doesn't remember a lot after that. He recalls waking up in the recovery room, surrounded by his family. It's been a tough recovery. He said for the longest time, he felt pretty weak. But his strength has come back. All he knew was his heart came from a 21-year-old kid. He felt guilty. He was alive because a 21-year-old kid had died. He felt bad about that. Not long after his transplant, the Gift of Life program contacted him, saying that the mother of the kid who provided his heart wanted to get in touch with him. He was cautious about it. But he wanted to thank her and make sure she knew how much he appreciated her sacrifice. They wrote back and forth a few times, always through the transplant program. Finally, Wendy Phillips asked whether she could meet any of the recipients of her son's organs. Then, one Friday afternoon in July, Phillips was in her downtown York office when her cell phone rang. "Wendy, this is Bob," the voice on the other end said. "Bob who?" Phillips asked. "I'm the guy who received your son's heart." Phillips was speechless. "Are you there?" Moore asked. "Yes," she said. They talked for a while and agreed to meet in Hershey on Aug. 5. The sat down in the lobby and talked. She was amazed. Moore was into motorcycles and had just bought a new Harley. He had tattoos; her son had tattoos. He was a big guy; so was her son. They both loved pumpkin pie. She met Moore's mother and sister. Moore wanted her to meet the people who took care of him, and they went upstairs to the cardiac unit. The nurses wept when they met her. Phillips asked one of the nurses whether she could borrow a stethoscope to listen to her son's heart beating in another man's chest. She might have put the stethoscope on wrong because she couldn't hear it very well. She pressed her ear to Moore's chest and listened. She heard it. Beating strong. After they said their goodbyes and parted, Phillips thought about the meeting. It felt good, she said. "Anyone that's lost a child will tell you letting go is the hardest thing even when you know you're giving them back to God, but it's the memories and pain of missing them that never goes away," she wrote in a letter. "But when you know a piece of your child is giving life to someone else, it's like a candle in the darkness of that pain. Meeting Bob was a gift to me." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpspeed Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustinsn3485 Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 That's touching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbrjess0815 Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 wow... i'm speechless and crying right now. it's pretty cool how they were so much alike but that would be so hard to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagr Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 Good story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjachk08 Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 that's amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alab32 Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 Amazing chain of events! God works in mysterious ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsxrnurse Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it. Stuff like this keeps me going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casper Posted August 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 It's another reason why we should all be organ donors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsxr750girl Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it. Stuff like this keeps me going.+1 amazing story.....I'm crying now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yotaman88210 Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 It's another reason why we should all be organ donors.Q for T I are donor of my organs. Im not sure anyone would want my love muscle tho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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