MEDICAL WATCH : Living Legacy

Reginald and Margaret Green of Bodega Bay, Calif., set out on a vacation to Italy with their 7-year-old son, Nicholas, and 4-year-old daughter, Eleanor. Only three of them will return alive. Nicholas was fatally wounded by a gunshot to the head during a robbery attempt against the family on an Italian highway.

In their grief, the Greens have left the Italian people an unusual legacy. Nicholas’ heart is now pumping in the body of a Roman boy; his liver is in a Sicilian woman; one kidney is in a girl from Puglia, and the other in a Sicilian boy.

Organ donations are rare in Italy. The country has one of the lowest organ donation rates in Europe--six donations per year for every 1 million inhabitants. “In Italy, half of those who could agree to donate organs don’t--with predictable consequences for those waiting to be saved,” said Carlo Marcelletti, a transplant surgeon in Rome. He added that the Greens are an example Italians should follow.

The Greens, who through their lifesaving decision embraced people unknown to them, offer a lesson in selfless giving. Amid heartbreaking loss they bore no bitterness; in a time of family darkness they manifested a spirit of caring and sharing. “I would have liked him to live a long time,” said his mother. “Now I wish the same thing for his heart.”

Nicholas Green’s life was senselessly extinguished. But through parts from his body four other lives have been extended. Nicholas, at the end of his brief years, stands as a symbol of the need for organ donations throughout the world.