Reviews

As his vacationing family drove through southern Italy on a summer night in 1994, seven-year-old Nicholas Green, asleep in the back seat, was shot in the head during a botched robbery. The next day his parents made what was for them the "least major decision either of us has ever had to make": to donate Nicholas's organs. What was for them almost an afterthought in their shock and grief had an electrifying effect on Italy and the world. Organ donations were uncommon in Italy prior to Nicholas's death; donor card signings surged afterwards. The Greens' generosity was greeted with an outpouring of sympathy, admiration, and a profound change in the attitude toward organ donation. Nicholas's father documents the astounding and exhausting media attention their simple act received and the way it changed their lives, those of the seven Italians who received Nicholas's organs, and thousands of others around the world. Nicholas's story puts a human face on organ donation, much as Ryan White's did for AIDS. Highly recommended.ÄAnne C. Tomlin, Auburn Memorial Hosp. Lib., NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.