Miracle Medicine? Or medical crucifixion?
Dave Benefiel’s heart-lung transplant journey began when he went on the transplant list and I followed him, his blind wife Linda, and their two children for more than a year as they prayed for a miracle. Just weeks before Medicaid was planning to pull funding for his surgery, Dave got the organs he was praying for. I was in the operating room and at his bedside for every step.
Dave recovered from the surgery and, feeling better than he had in his entire life, he went home where he and Linda made plans for their future. Setting up job interviews and attending church, Dave claimed he was living proof of a miracle. But after only two days at home, Dave began feeling ill and was told to return to the hospital. His health declined to the point where, after five months of suffering, Dave, Linda, and the hospital staff decided that the battle was lost. They lowered the assistance of his respirator, he slipped into a coma, and his donated heart died.
In Dave’s mind, the rare heart and lung transplant gave him a 30-percent chance he would see his daughters walk down the aisle at their weddings. In the end, it was Linda and their two children, Faith, 6, and Joy, 2, who lost.
This photo essay was the first nomination for The Pulitzer Prize by the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Like Dave, it didn’t win. Reporter Bob Davis and I are now revisiting this story to see where Linda and her two daughters are today. We’re considering updating this project from both the family’s perspective as well as organ transplant system. What medical advances were made since the early1990’s? How does the transplant system deal with people looking today for miracles?
