Thirty-one years ago, a 19-year old in Sicily, Maria Pia Pedala, who was in her final coma from liver failure, was saved from certain death by the liver of my seven-year old son, Nicholas (nicholasgreen.org.) In June she will become a grandmother! Her daughter, Alessia, who was born six years after the transplant, is pregnant.
Maria Pia wrote in an email to an Italian friend, Andrea Scarabelli: “I want the Green family to know that the seed of love they planted many years ago continues to grow in the life of our family” She added that as she was writing she was crying with happiness because she never imagined that ‘the great gift’ could give her joy in so many ways.
Maggie, my wife, and I donated Nicholas’ organs and corneas to seven very sick Italians after he was shot in a bungled robbery while we were on a family vacation in Italy in 1994. Maria Pia, his liver recipient, bounced back to health, married her childhood sweetheart, Salvatore, and four years after the transplant had a baby, a boy, whom they called Nicholas, and two years after that a girl, Alessia.
Il Giorno article by Dario Crippa
The story was first reported in the Il Giorno newspaper, followed by Corriere della Sera, giving organ donation another upward push.
Il Corriere della Sera article
We have met Maria Pia several times and always marvel at how healthy she is. She is a busy, hardworking housewife, up soon after five in the morning, makes the family meals, keeps a spotless home and does everything women of her age and in her neighborhood do. Generous-hearted as she is, she always talks of her gratitude to us — and Nicholas.
Transplantation is a medical miracle, isn’t it? As Pietro Gallo, founder of the Aido branch in Giussano commented, “Nicholas started a third generation though living only seven years!”
Reg Green
The Nicholas Effect 