SAN DIEGO
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He was a seemingly healthy 15-year-old boy who enjoyed weight lifting and computer games. She was a 61-year-old woman with congestive heart failure, unsure if she would live to see her grandchildren grow up.
NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune
Christina Courtney listens to transplant patient Maria Flores' new heart.
Robbie Courtney, the 15-year-old boy who died in his sleep of a brain aneurysm.
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The fates of Robbie Courtney and Maria Flores intersected May 17, 2005. That was when Flores got Robbie's heart after he died in his sleep of a brain aneurysm.
Yesterday, Flores met Robbie's family for the first time.
In a small room at Sharp Metropolitan Medical Campus in Serra Mesa – where Flores had her heart transplant – Robbie's mother, Debbie Courtney, waited with her daughter and son. When Flores, who had driven there from her home in El Centro, walked in with her three adult children, the embracing began. And the tears.
The first question asked was if Robbie liked video games.
Yes, the Courtneys nodded. He loved them.
Next question: Did Robbie like asparagus?
He did, Debbie replied. Why?
“Because I'm hooked on video games now,” Flores said. “And asparagus. And I never used to be.”
The families talked for more than two hours, sharing laughs between cries as they reminisced about life before and after the transplant.
Though it's not unheard of, few donors and recipients meet, said Sharon Ross, the community outreach manager for Lifesharing, a nonprofit organ recovery agency in San Diego.
“In San Diego, we saved 283 lives through organ donation last year,” she said. “We coordinated maybe three meetings.”
Often, the biggest barrier is the families themselves, said Elena de la Cruz, Latino communications coordinator for OneLegacy, the organization that handled the procurement of Robbie's organs.
“A lot of recipients feel guilty,” she said.
The meeting at Sharp began with a letter.
In March of last year, the Courtneys, who live in Carpinteria, received their first note from Flores, signed “Forever grateful.” They soon arranged a face-to-face encounter.
Yesterday, the Courtneys passed around pictures of Robbie, a 6-foot, 180-pound high school freshman with blond hair and blue eyes who died without warning.
“He was a delight,” Debbie Courtney said. “He was an easygoing kid. He liked to make people smile.”
At one point, Robbie's sister, Christina Courtney, 23, asked Flores if she could listen to her heart.
“Your heart,” Flores replied.
Christina Courtney put on a stethoscope and listened. “Thank you,” she whispered as she heard her brother's heartbeat.
Sharon Heilbrunn:
(619) 293-1370;
sharon.heilbrunn@uniontrib.com
