She had been at a pool party at my apartment complex the prior Thursday night. It turned out that we were neighbors. Suprisingly, I was relatively calm. Will Crowder, the team social worker, says that ninety percent of the recipients are calm when they get the call. Part of the reason I remained so calm was that I did not know if my operation was a definite go.
Most people get false alarms.
They get beeped and at some stage in the process, the transplant is called off. That happens when the donor lungs are not in good condition. They can have an infection or a trauma from the fatal injury. Michael Ackerman had gone through two false alarms that took him all the way to Anderson Four. Some people had made it all the way on the surgery table before it was called off.