Stefanie said nothing. She just listened. A year after losing her 12-year-old daughter, Autumn, in a house fire in Minnesota, she placed a stethoscope on the chest of a stranger and heard again a heartbeat she knew so well. It was her little girl’s heart.
The woman who received it is named Sandra Segebart, lives in Oklahoma, and received the transplant last summer. She drove to Minnesota to thank the mother and brought a surprise: the stethoscope. In the video of the meeting, shared by CBS News, Stefanie appears visibly moved, listening in silence.
“She has my daughter’s heart, so I think that makes her part of my family”, Stefanie said. Sandra, for her part, felt that Autumn is still alive through her and that the heart is keeping her alive.
Autumn was an athletic girl who played volleyball, tennis, and basketball. Stefanie estimates that hundreds of families could be impacted by the organs her daughter donated.
