Grieving Parents Meet The Man Who Received Their Late Son’s Heart

No parent should ever have to experience the grief of losing a child.

When David and Valerie Stebel, of Norwalk, Ohio, received a call from their son Cody’s work, saying that he never showed up, they feared the worst.

Sadly, their worst nightmare came true when they learned that 20-year-old Cody had gotten into a serious car accident and was pronounced brain dad.

But since Cody was an organ donor, he was able to save the lives of six other people who depended on new organs to survive.

One of those recipients was a man named Gene Shimandle, who received the gift of Cody’s heart. Shimandle was diagnosed with heart failure when he turned 50 years old. He waited on the transplant list for 12 years before finally receiving the call that there was a heart ready for him.

As a paramedic and CPR trainer, Shimandle understood the trauma that Cody’s family was going through. He even wrote them an anonymous letter to thank them for the gift of life.

After a transplant, the donor’s family and recipient aren’t able to learn of each other’s identity for six months.

Shimandle’s heart transplant was thankfully a success, and he felt so good that he even signed up to run a 5k marathon. His story was so inspiring, that a local news crew interviewed him and aired it.

The Stebels just happened to see the news story, and put two and two together and realized that Shimandle was the man who received their son’s heart. They contacted the news channel and were able to get in touch with Shimandle.

They arranged to meet at Shimandle’s 5k race, and their meeting was just as emotional as you’d expect it to be!

Not only did they get to meet Shimandle, but they got to use a stethoscope to hear their son’s heart pumping inside of him.

“Hearing that heartbeat for the first time, I knew that was Cody’s heart,” Cody’s mom said. “But then reality hits and you know that it’s in somebody else’s body, but it gives you that rush of relief that he’s still there. He’s still here, a part of him is still here. And he’s a hero in more ways than we can say because he saved this man’s life.”

“Cody’s gift to me was the most precious gift I have ever received,” Shimandle said.

He and Cody’s parents have remained friends and his heart is still pumping strong!

Hear the emotional and touching story in the video below:

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