It’s not every day; you hear this kind of stories. The way how mother met his son’s heart will bring you tears.
On Mother’s Day, Hutt listened to the beat of her teenage son’s heart inside the chest of the man her son saved through organ donation.
Gary Flint, 64 had been diagnosed with nonischemic cardiomyopathy which is an enlargement of the heart that can be caused by several factors, including high blood pressure, a virus or genetics.
But his condition deteriorated the same month Payton (Hutt’s son) died.
“In May 2014 my heart function got worse,” Flint said. “I wasn’t feeling well and had trouble breathing. I remember (transplant surgeon) Dr. John Um telling me ‘Gary, you’re a very sick man. I’m not sure if we will get you a heart in time.’ After hearing that, I made peace with dying.”
Doctor said, only about 4 percent of his heart was still working and he needed the transplant.
Flint received the heart of Payton Casteel 16-year-old, who was riding his dirt bike and collided with a van on May 21, 2014. As he wasn’t wearing his helmet, he suffered severe head trauma.
Six days after Flint was placed on the transplant waiting list, a nurse came into his hospital room at midnight and told him a match had been found. On May 23, two days after Payton’s fatal accident, his heart was transplanted into Flint.
“I have two birthdays now,” Flint said. “I always tell people that I’m 64 going on 18. My first birthday is Feb. 27 — the day I was actually born. The other birthday is May 23 — the day I received Payton’s heart. That birthday means much more to me.”
The heart wrenching conversation between Payton and his mom Hutt
“I will never forget that conversation,” Hutt said. “I told Payton ‘What you come into this world with you should leave with.’
“But Payton didn’t believe that.
“He told me ‘Mom, they’re my organs, not yours. Are you telling me that if something happens to me you’d let my organs rot in the ground? No. I want to be a donor and help people.’ ”
Payton’s decision saved seven lives in all.
“When Payton was little he would go and go and go. It would make me tired just watching him,” Hutt said. “I just want Gary to be healthy and happy. I’m excited to meet his family and listen to his heart.”
“I never smoked or drank in my life, but now I’m thinking of taking it up,” he joked. “When you talk about Payton, it’s like you’re talking about me. I usually like to exceed the fun meter.”
One year after his heart transplant, Flint and Hutt started communicating via letters and phone calls.
Hutt not only got to hear her son’s heart beating again but also received a recording of it inside a stuffed bear. She hugged the gift from Flint and his family tightly. “I couldn’t think of a better man for the heart,” she said. “I want him to live. I want him to smile, and I want him to be happy.”
Flint expressed his deepest gratitude and love to Hutt and her son Payton enough for his “second chance at life.” “I got to see my grandson be born and then my granddaughter,” he said. “I mean, it’s a miracle, giving life again.”
Organ donors are the real gods. I literally shed tears after reading the conversation between Payton and his mom.
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