Heart of a seven-year-old American boy finally stops beating 22 years after he was shot dead on a family holiday as the teenager whose life he saved dies aged 37

Nicholas Green was just seven years old when ruthless killers shot him dead in a random act of horror during a family holiday in Italy in 1994.
His selfless parents Maggie and Reg decided to donate Nicholas' heart to Andrea Mongiardo, an Italian teenage boy in desperate need of a transplant.
The act of kindness kept Mr Mongiardo alive for 22 more years until his death in February - meaning their beloved son's heart only stopped beating this year.
But the American couple did not stop there - Nicholas' organs went on to save the lives of five Italians, while his corneas saved the sight of two others.
The gesture, as well as national horror at the random murder of a child, led to Italy's organ donation rate tripling in a decade - a result hailed as the 'Nicholas effect'.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4478266/American-boy-s-organs-helped-Italian-man-live-decades.html

How sad, and yet somehow uplifting too, that 22 years' grace was given from one life to another.

HoratioTarr wrote:How sad, and yet somehow uplifting too, that 22 years' grace was given from one life to another.

It is sad that someone so young died,but that in his death others have been helped and some solace has been brought to the parents for the help it has given to not one but many people having their lives saved. Its even worse to think that it takes a tragedy like this for then a nation to act, as seen has happened in the case of the murder of this innocent child. To see organ donation then triple.

This really should be moved to the inspirational section.