Flesh, blood, lymph, organs. These aren’t just mechanisms of a machine, but are also carriers of feelings, memories, emotions. That’s what has convinced Sara (25), who suffers from a rare genetic liver disease for which she needs a transplant. The young woman wants to know nothing of it; she’s not ready to accept a stranger’s organ inside her. In the middle of the '90s, transplants are still a dangerous and experimental operation in Italy, and many are opposed to this procedure. A common line of thought today, even among those who have had transplants, holds that each organ encloses the feelings, ways of being, even memories of the person who owned it. The transfer of the DNA from the transplanted organ would therefore be the start of a metamorphosis: the recipient would become the donor.

 

Sara believes in these theories until Carla (45), who is also on the waiting list, comes into her life. They form a deep bond, prompted not only by the shared destination that unites them. Love fills each of their lives in a way they’d never thought they could experience. A love that must face up to the closed-minded, bigoted mentality of a small village in Puglia, with the Church that shapes attitudes and refuses transplants, with a family whose protection risks becoming a prison.

When Carla is at risk of dying because of a lack of a donor, that’s when Sara really has to choose: stay true to her convictions or undergo a dangerous, experimental operation.

 

In 1995, in Padova, one of the world’s first domino transplants is undertaken.

 

The person who carried out that transplant is writing this story today.