INSPADES MAGAZINE UNO | Page 9

desired surgeries, until the old chief of surgery
scoffs at her unimaginative and uninspired list,
and implores her to seek out “heart in a box”,
a heart that has been removed from a donor
and is being kept alive at the hospital until it
is picked up to be taken to the recipient. She
spends the better part of the episode staring
at the “heart in a box”, oblivious as to how it is
supposed to help her.
Now, the usual process of a heart transplant
requires taking the organ out of the donor,
placing it on ice, transporting it, placing into
the recipient’s body, then waiting for the cold,
dead heart to warm up and come back to life.
However, in this case, they have used a portable
heart perfusion system, a machine that keeps
the heart alive by mechanically moving warm
blood through it and monitoring it, while it
sits in a protective clear enclosure—in other
words, a heart in a box. The unique thing
about it is that, even though it is between
bodies, the heart never stops living. As Yang
aptly puts it, “It’s a friggin miracle.”
The reason I am regaling you with my
midnight brain fodder, is because at least a
dozen times a day I think, am I following my
highest excitement, to the best of my ability,
right now? The answer, often, is no, no I’m
not. Not because I have some detestable or
helpless life in which I couldn’t possibly, but
because I simply get caught up in routine of
things or the busyness of things, and forget.
I forget to be excited, can you believe that?
Of course you can, because we both know
you do it too.

© Mary Grace Dela Peña

@nini29dk

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