The giver
When Denise Darvall stepped out of the shop with a cake in her hands, she had no idea her name would be in the newspapers of the world. Not because of what she did, but because of what she gave. She gave someone a chance at life. Darvall and her mother were hit by a car driven by a drunk driver. Her mother died instantly. Darvall lived but was very badly injured. She died later.
The receiver
When Louis Washkansky looked out the hospital window that morning, he had no idea what he was going to receive that day. Washkansky was dying from a heart condition. His wife came to visit him. She was very sad as she knew the only way he could be saved was to get a new heart. Nobody had ever received a new heart before. On her way home, she passed by a traffic accident that would become very important in her husband's life.
The professor
Professor Christiaan Barnard was a doctor at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. He had been learning a great deal about transplanting human organs. No one had ever transplanted a heart before. Barnard knew his patient, Washkansky, would die if he did not get a new heart. When Denise Darvall died, her father allowed her heart to be used for a transplant operation. Barnard knew he had to take the chance and do the operation.