Tragic Bond Links Heart Donor, Recipient

A Georgia man who took his own life last week had lived 12 years after receiving a transplanted heart from a South Carolina man who also committed suicide, police said. And in a twist worthy of Edgar Allan Poe, the donor's widow had met and married the recipient, the Hilton Head Island Packet reports.

Terry Cottle died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1995, when Sonny Graham was on the verge of succumbing to congestive heart failure. Graham received Cottle's heart and later got in touch with his family to express his thanks. He and Cheryl Cottle met in 1997 and married in 2004. "I felt like I had known her for years," he said later. (More heart surgery stories.)