CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Four years ago, just before Christmas, Andreona Williams passed away at the age of 20 due to asthma complications.
On Saturday, her mother Amber Morgan came to Chicago from Indiana, where she met with 68-year-old Tom Johnson, the transplant recipient of her daughter’s donated heart.
At the Travelodge in the Loop, Morgan pressed a stethoscope against Johnson's chest. She was able to hear the beat of her daughter's heart within him. Morgan called the experience amazing and said she almost felt like she got to hug her daughter again.
Johnson’s wife Sharon was there and said before the transplant, her husband was pretty much immobilized. He could only walk with a cane.
“Now, I have to keep him on the life-thing to make sure I know where he is,” Johnson said. “Because he’ll be gone hours, and I’m like, ‘Where is he at?’ He’s off on that bike, and he’s just pedaling away.”
When she comes home, Johnson said she’ll often hear her husband on the treadmill.
“I said, ‘How many miles have you gone?’” she said. “‘Oh, I’ve been on for about 45 minutes,’ [he said], and I just think, ‘praise God,’ because this would have never happened.”
Both Sharon and Tom Johnson thanked Morgan for her daughter’s gift to them.
The meeting was organized by the Indiana Donor Network.
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