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EMT unknowingly delivers heart donation meant for uncle

While performing his everyday duties, EMT Teddy Ross delivered a transplant organ for his own uncle

By EMS1 Staff

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An area EMT delivered an organ donation to a hospital without realizing it was a heart meant to go to his own uncle.

First Coast News reported that Jacksonville EMT Teddy Ross was dispatched to the airport to pick up an organ and transport it to Mayo Clinic. After the drop-off, it dawned on Ross that the heart was for his uncle, Charles McCain, who was in congestive heart failure and had been put on the transplant list four days ago.

“I couldn’t believe what I just did,” Ross said. “I just transported my uncle’s heart.”

The incredible situation was not lost on McCain, either.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘Dang, I should have been nicer to him,” he laughed. “I’m proud of him. He’s grown up to be an exceptional young man.”

The logistics of the exchange are pretty incredible, according to McCain’s transplant cardiologist, Dr. Rohan Goswami.

“It’s a pretty remarkable situation,” Goswami said. “I think there’s a lot of divine intervention.”

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