The organ is placed as an exhibit at Hunterian Museum in London.
In one of the strangest reunions ever, a woman recently visited a museum to see her own heart, which was removed from her body during a life-saving transplant surgery 16 years ago, BBC reported. Jennifer Sutton, who hails from Ringwood in Hampshire, stated that it was “incredibly surreal” to see her own organ placed as an exhibit at Hunterian Museum in London.
”The minute you first walk in, you think, ‘That used to be inside my body’,” she said. “But it’s quite nice too—it’s like my friend. It kept me alive for 22 years and I’m quite proud of it really. I’ve seen lots of things in jars in my lifetime but to think that’s actually mine is very weird,” she added.
She expressed how she hopes it would support organ donation, which she described as “the greatest gift possible.” She told the BBC that she now leads an active and busy life and intends to “keep myself going for as long as possible.”
When Ms. Sutton first discovered she had difficulty with moderate exercise activity, such as walking up hills, she was a 22-year-old university student. She was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, which is a health condition that restricts the ability of the heart to pump blood around the body. Doctors told her that she would die if she did not receive a transplant.
In June 2007, she received the life-changing news that a match had been found.
“I remember waking up after the transplant and thinking ‘Oh my goodness I am actually a new person. I remember doing a little double thumbs up dance to my family and saying ‘I made it I made it,” she said.
Ms. Sutton then permitted the Royal College of Surgeons to use her heart for a display and it is now open for all to see at the museum in Holborn.
She said she wanted to take steps for promoting organ donation and added that it made life-defining moments such as her wedding, happen. She further said that she wanted to urge others to live life to the fullest and encouraged anyone putting off plans to “do it today”.