On Sunday, a member of the Reddit community posted, “My Uncle Greg just got two new lungs from a victim of the Aurora shootings. Amazing that such tragedy saves a man’s life too.”
This guy got two new lungs from an Aurora shooting victim. There's NO reason we all shouldn't be organ donors. http://t.co/vP3OGsea
— Emerson (@EmersonShotwell) July 22, 2012
The Twitterverse was touched and comforted by the Reddit post.
From a tragedy, comes hope. Double lung transplant recipient from Aurora shooting victim. Organ donation saves lives. http://t.co/93Bdlm5B
— André Corbeil (@RambleMan) July 22, 2012
I just read something about a guy who got 2 lungs from one of the Aurora victims. Miracles come in weird ways. #GodAlwaysHasAReason
— Jacob Kraemer (@StewCrew14) July 23, 2012
https://twitter.com/MkWisnie/status/227237839652409344
https://twitter.com/SamSpratt/status/227156902407184384
Dying man receives 2 new lungs from victim of the Aurora shooting, at least some good can come out of this: http://t.co/ERsy6tUy
— Sir Andrew of Collinson (@andycollie25) July 22, 2012
While this story serves as an uplifting illustration of how glimmers of light can be found during even the darkest tragedies, it remains unconfirmed.
One Twitter user appears to corroborate the story.
https://twitter.com/AnnaSkalski/status/227372799046602752
But several Redditors have pointed out that the person who submitted the story has no other posts on the site and has not returned to respond to skeptical comments. It’s a moving account, but needs to be taken with a grain of salt until it can be verified.
What do you think?
Update:
NBC reports that the Redditor, 18-year-old Lucas Massey, got the story about his uncle wrong.
Greg Muzzy, a former construction worker from Wichita, did get his lungs in a successful operation on Friday. But the donor wasn’t in the Aurora movie theater early Friday morning, hospital and transplant officials said.
“We can tell you that those lungs did not come from Colorado,” said Pam Silvestri, public affairs director for the Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas. A spokeswoman for UT Southwestern Medical Center, where Muzzy was treated, said the same.
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