Featured Image Credit: Family handout
Topics: US News, Health, Mental Health
Gerrard Kaonga
Warning: Article contains discussions of suicide
In a tragic turn of events, a man who received the heart of a suicide victim and married his widow went on to take his own life years later.
In 1995, a then 57-year-old Sonny Graham of Vidalia, Georgia, was suffering was on the verge of congestive heart failure. But luckily, he received the heart of suicide victim Terry Cottle.
Terry had taken his own life following various mental health struggles and an argument with his wife, Cheryl Sweat.
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After receiving Terry's heart, Air Force veteran Sonny began writing letters to his family, a normal practice for many recipients of organs.
In 1997, he met his donor’s widow Cheryl, then 28, and the pair seemed to hit it off.
"I felt like I had known her for years,"Sonny explained in a 2006 report. “I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I just stared."
He also admitted in a letter that he fell in love with Cheryl 'the first time they met', CBS News reports.
The pair eventually became a couple and nearly a decade after the transplant, the couple decided to marry.
However, in a tragic coincidence, at the age of 69 in 2008, 13 years on from the death of Terry, Graham would go on to take his own life in the same way as his donor by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Graham’s death was not considered suspicious.
Following his death, many people proposed odd theories suggesting the organ somehow maintained a ‘suicide gene’, something Terry's sister addressed.
She strongly denied these rumours, and insisted the brain is where the consciousness resides, where love and loss are felt, whereas the heart is just a pump.
This story has resurfaced on social media, with many unable to comprehend the devastating turn of events and again, spouting theories regarding ‘suicide genes’ within organs.
“Sonny Graham received a transplanted heart from a suicide victim is already a pretty heavy and emotional situation, but then to go on and marry the donor's wife and later commit suicide in the same way... it's mind-boggling and heartbreaking all at once,” one user wrote.
“A tragic and perplexing tale of interconnected lives and fate,” added another, while a third said: "That's a haunting coincidence, tragic."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123