Man who received suicide victim's heart ended up copying his donor's tragic life, down to this terrible detail

TW: Mentions of suicide

We’ve all heard some crazy stories in our time. There’s this man, who fell off a cliff and lived to tell the tale, or this 56-year-old woman ended up pregnant with her son's baby. But buckle up, because this story is both wild and tragic in equal measures.

In 1995, Sonny Graham from Vidalia, Georgia, was suffering with congestive heart failure, a very serious condition in which the heart doesn't pump blood as efficiently as it should around the body. Thankfully, he received a heart from an organ donor in time to save his life. However, after his recovery, his life started to take a spooky turn as it mirrored that of his donor’s.

Graham’s heart donor

In a poetic twist of fate, Graham received his replacement heart from a man who had chosen to take his own life. Terry Cottle had been struggling with various mental health issues and, after a heated argument with his wife Cheryl Sweat, he shot himself.

Cottle's heart went on to save Graham, who was obviously very grateful. Graham, an Air Force veteran, wrote to his donor’s family members. This is normal practice for the recipients of an organ donor, but the outcome of his letters was far from normal.

In 1997, he met his donor Cottle’s widow Cheryl. Sonny was 57 and Cheryl was 28 at the time, but the pair got on like a house on fire. Sonny later revealed he fell in love with Cheryl the moment he first laid eyes on her:

I felt like I had known her for years. I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I just stared.

They started dating and, nearly a decade after the transplant, they got married. However, Cheryl was soon to experience the second major tragedy of her life: at 69 years old, Sonny ended his life in the same way her first husband had. In 2008, 13 years on from Cottle’s death, Sonny died through a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was not considered suspicious.

After his passing, many speculated that the heart shared by Cottle and Sonny had the ‘suicide gene’. Cottle’s sister rejected this idea, stating that the brain is the host of the conscious mind, whereas the heart is simply a muscular pump.

This tragic tale has continued to shock and sadden people the world since it was first reported in 2008.

Read more:

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Sources used:

UniLad: Man who received heart of suicide victim goes on to live same life and dies in same way

NIH: Congestive Heart Failure