Elisabeth Kepley was given the gift of life by receiving the heart of Rob Maresca. And Kepley repaid that gift by giving Maresca’s parents something they thought they would never again hear: the thump of their son’s heart beating.
Kepley reached out to give thanks to the parents of her heart donor.
“I am the recipient of your son’s heart,” she wrote, USA Today reported. “I want to thank you for giving me a chance to live through donating your son’s heart on that difficult day in April 2017.”
Two years ago Kepley began experiencing the first stages of heart failure, a direct result of the chemotherapy treatment she’d completed 10 years earlier.
After Kepley received Rob Maresca’s heart on April 30th, 2017, she wanted to find a way to repay her donor’s parents, the ones who made the gift a reality.
Rob’s 2017 death was sudden and unexpected.
“He was at work, and I wasn’t ready for that. Not in the slightest,” Maresca’s father Bob said, USA Today reported.
Shortly after Rob turned 30, he fell off a ladder. When he stood up, he lost conciousness and would never wake up again.
Following that incident, Rob’s parents made the difficult decision to donate their son’s organs and tissues to help others in need.
After Kepley contacted the Marescas, they agreed to meet at Westchester Medical Center, the facility where Keply received her new heart.
It was there that Rob’s parents heard their son’s heart pumping life-giving blood throughout Kepley’s body.
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