Inside STAT: The sound of a heartbeat

ELISABETH TILLY MEETS JON HOCHSTEIN. (COURTESY PENFED CREDIT UNION) 

The young medical student handed her a stethoscope, opened his shirt, and pointed to where she should place it. Hesitantly, she pressed it to his skin and broke into tears. The heart Elisabeth Tilly heard inside the chest of a 25-year-old stranger once beat inside her son. Christopher, age 8, was killed by a truck barreling through a crosswalk in front of his elementary school. Jon Hochstein, then 4 years old, was fighting for his life. Tilly didn’t want to donate Christopher’s organs because she thought he’d need them in heaven. But then she saw Hochstein’s tiny legs poking out from under his sheets and changed her mind. For more than 20 years, the two families never connected. STAT contributor Karen Weintraub tells us how they finally did.