48 Hours - Broken Hearts

Episode Date: March 15, 2020

A story of tragedy and triumph -- the murder of a young woman and how a her killer’s heart saves the life of a dying woman. CBS News' Jim Axelrod reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I've been a writer for almost 50 years. And I have never encountered a story like this that was such a combination of utter tragedy and happiness. We call this story The Beating Heart.

Because a heart survived a tragic event. So it was Christmas 1986. All the Christmas cheer of the season, everyone's happy, smiling. So it was the best Christmas ever. I was falling hard in love, and then it all ended. Police got a call around 2 a.m. that shots were fired at an apartment complex, and they rushed to the scene. The first detective on the scene was Detective Tommy Lee. I went up to the second floor to the apartment, walked in, and a young 19-year-old female was laying on the floor with what appeared to be blood coming from her face

and her head and her eyes. The victim was Karen Ermert. At 2.30 a.m. Saturday, Karen Ermert was found dead in her apartment, shot three times in the head. Detective Lee is looking at this horrifying scene, and suddenly a woman shows up and it's the victim's mother. We looked each other in the face and I said, I hate to tell you this, but your 19-year-old daughter is dead.

She was murdered and she collapsed in my arms. She was murdered, and she collapsed in my arms. Tommy, I can't imagine there's anything you learn in the academy that prepares you for a moment like that. I'll never forget it. You never forget telling a mother that her 19-year-old daughter has been murdered. I was shocked. I didn't believe it at first. My name is Rich Lieb. I had known Karen Ermert for several years,

and we had recently started dating. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't imagine what happened. Went upstairs to my room, laid down on my bed, and I think I cried for 12 hours. It was just, she's gone. I didn't get to say goodbye to her. It just kind of left a hole.

But that's not where this story ended. Something amazing came out of something horrifying. It doesn't happen that often. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok If there are two things in this world that Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten loves, they are writing. Old clocks are timeless. And tinkering with time. This was made around 1895, and when I'm done with it, it'll be working like new. When you're repairing a really old clock, you feel as though you're in touch with time itself. Gene has long believed there is no such thing as an ordinary day,

that countless stories lay hidden in space and time, some lost forever, others destined to be discovered. My theory has been that if you take a day, midnight to midnight, a single day, you would find encapsulated in that day the entire human experience. And I decided to challenge that theory. How? By pulling numbers randomly out of a hat. Gene and his editor, Tom Schroeder, went to the Old Ebbet Grill in Washington, D.C.,

threw 20 years of random dates into a green fedora and picked one to prove Gene's theory that something extraordinary happens every day. We came up with December 28th, 1986. It was the slowest news day of the week, a Sunday, during the slowest time of the year, the Christmas holidays. If we could have read the thought bubbles over both of your heads. You couldn't print them. We felt we had really drawn a terrible, terrible day. But true to Gene's theory, he would soon learn this was no ordinary day.

Something amazing had happened. A medical feat that would make history. Something astonishing happened. A remarkable triumph. And then I investigated further. And an entirely different story related to it emerged. And that involved a savage murder, the murder of Karen Ermert. He met a detective named Tommy Lee who had held on to Karen's file for 30 years for reasons he couldn't quite explain.

The case was closed, but I couldn't just store her away. It bothered me that her life was cut short. Her case was closed, but I couldn't just store her away. It bothered me that her life was cut short. I thank goodness for Jean Weingartner, because she's going to have a little more of a legacy than just an obituary in a yearbook. Can you describe Karen for me a little bit? From a purely physical standpoint,

she was effortlessly beautiful. You look at her pictures and you just see someone who wasn't trying to be pretty. She just was pretty. She was talented. She played the flute. And everybody really loved her. Including Rich Lieb. I think about her all the time.

Rich first met Karen in high school when she started dating another guy, his childhood friend, Mark Wiley. He worshipped the ground she walked on. Just a teenage boy that was really proud to be on the arm of a beautiful young girl. proud to be on the arm of a beautiful young girl. But over time, Rich, who double-dated with Mark and Karen, says Mark's pride turned to obsession. If she wasn't with him, he always wanted to know where she was. He actually, at times, drove around Northern Virginia following her to find out what she was doing and where she was.

He was a young man who was furiously in love with a young woman. And I'm using the word furiously deliberately. He was what we would now call a stalker. This was a guy who had this beautiful teenage girl on his arm and lived in fear that he was going to lose her. Oh, definitely. If she were somewhere and somebody smiled, looked at her, and she smiled back, what are you looking at them for?

This is not somebody who got a little too into his romantic partner. He wanted to own her. Mark's affection for whiskey made matters worse. As soon as he started getting alcohol in him, he got paranoid, a little defensive about every little thing, and really brooding and moody. He became a dark figure? Yes, he was commonly known as an angry drunk.

And Karen was not one to back down from a fight. They became very fiery together. He would start an argument. Oh, he looked at you, you looked at him. But she would argue back, and I think that just made him angrier. Rich, this is a combustible mix. Yeah. Yeah, It really was. Rich grew so disgusted by Mark's behavior toward Karen, he severed his friendship with Mark.

But he would later learn just how combustible Mark and Karen's relationship was. She had gone to the hospital a number of times for injuries. She said that they would get into fights and it was literally like a fist fight, that she just had to try to defend herself. That was very disturbing to hear that. He overwhelmed her over the years to the point where she realized she could take this no more and she broke up with him. Around this time, Rich received a letter that would change his life. I got an

anonymous letter, and it was a love letter. I was just, I don't know who this is. I'd like to know who this is, but I have no idea. Completely anonymous? Completely anonymous. It was obviously from someone who knew me, and that she thought that I was kind and considerate, and she hoped that she could get up the nerve to tell me who she was. Finally, she did. Come Christmas Day, I get a phone call, and it's Karen. And she tells me, I broke up with Mark. I'm in my apartment all by myself. My roommates are gone.

Come over, keep me company. Sure. Love, Taryn. Great friends. So we spent a wonderful evening together talking and just having a great time. And about halfway through the night, she tells me, did you get a letter a couple months ago? And I was just floored. I had no idea.

She told me that she'd always had feelings for me, and we just fell right into step. If I inject you with truth serum on the night of the 26th, you think you've found your life partner? Yeah, probably. Can't help but wonder what might have been. It was like a revelation to her. As sad as this sounds,

that you could have a romantic relationship that didn't cause pain. She hadn't known that. But Mark Wiley refused to let her go, says Rich. Who was there when Karen called Mark to tell him there was no chance of getting back together? Basically, it was, look, I've tried to tell you nicely. I've tried to explain it to you. I've tried to be gentle about it.

But we're through. I'm not going to put up with your abuse anymore. And I don't want to see you anymore. What did you hear? Just a raised voice. Angry, raised voice. But she was smiling, and I think she felt a huge sense of relief

to finally felt like, I'm done with this. Nobody really caught the pure horror of this breakup. He told her at the time he was going to kill her. She laughed. She didn't think this was going to be possible. See more of the evidence photos at 48hours.com. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy

about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that

after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X.

In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defence attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Rich Lieb will never forget the last time he saw Karen Ermert. He was saying goodbye before leaving on a one-day ski trip. I told her, I really don't want to go. I just want to spend the time with you, but I already made an obligation. They're expecting me. And she said, okay, I'll see you tomorrow. I said, sure, I will call you as soon as I get in. And we parted ways. Neither one imagined her estranged boyfriend, Mark Wiley, was making plans of his own. He was either going to be able to get back together with this woman he had this obsession about,

or he was going to kill her. That's correct. Armed with a bottle of whiskey and a.22 caliber rifle, Mark Wiley got into his car and headed to Karen's apartment. Mark was in a rage. Obviously, he's not thinking clearly. Karen had every right to break up with him. She almost had an obligation to break up with him. So he's got a bunch of rage. Yes, he does.

He's got a bunch of booze. Yes. And he's got a rifle. Yes. Awful combination. Deadly one. So take me through it. He shows up here.

He doesn't go in through the front door. No, he parks his car around the other side, walks over here. He climbed up a tree to a balcony near her bedroom. He apparently had the rifle on his back. He stowed it on the balcony, walked into the house. Detective Lee believes it was Mark's last-ditch effort to win her back. And they got into a rather heated argument. And I think it was at that time that he decided it's not going to work out. And he goes back out and gets to 22 and shoots five rounds in, killing her.

Rich Lee got the news when he returned from his ski trip. I walk in the door, drop my stuff, immediately go to pick up the phone. And my mother comes in and stops me from dialing and says, Rich, Karen was shot last night. And I'm just in shock. Oh my gosh, what hospital? Where's she at? She didn't make it. And this is the part of the story where out of something horrifying

came something amazing, says Jean. The part of the story that out of something horrifying came something amazing, says Jean. The part of the story that belonged to this young woman, Eva Baze, a very sick 20-year-old nursing student fighting for her life in Fairfax Hospital. A couple of months earlier, the single mother of two young children had suddenly fallen ill. She couldn't walk more than a half block without stopping and wheezing. Climbing a set of stairs had become a Himalayan task for her. Her own doctor felt she had possibly a month or two to live. She finally went to see a heart specialist.

And the heart specialist did some tests and said, I need to put you in touch with a man I know, and it was Dr. LaFrac. When Dr. Ed LaFrac, chief of cardiac surgery at Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, met Eva Baze, she was suffering from idiopathic cardiomyopathy. The idiopathic means we have no idea what caused the heart failure. Her heart began to fail. Dr. LaFrac knew she would not survive without a radical procedure, a heart transplant. There was just one hitch. Had you ever performed a heart transplant before? No, I had not.

In 1986, heart transplants were so uncommon, no hospitals in the greater Washington, D.C. area were legally allowed to perform them. Dr. LaFrac, determined to make Fairfax the first, fought relentlessly to get permission. The local health agency said no. There wasn't enough demand. Some people might hear the no and go away. Well, that's not how I roll. Yeah, it's just the opposite. Mary Dellinger was his surgical nurse.

He was very determined, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. LeFrak hatched a plan. Bring the man who performed the first successful heart transplant ever in 1967, celebrated on the cover of Time magazine, Dr. Christian Barnard, to lobby the state health commissioner on LaFrac's behalf. He arrived in Virginia like a superstar. He said it would be amoral to not permit a qualified surgeon like Dr. LaFrac to do this surgery, and instantly they got permission. Dr. LaFrac just came in the OR the next day, and he says, we got it.

And what were you thinking? Well, I was thinking, okay, we're on. Now we need to find the first perfect patient. That first perfect patient was Eva Baze. But she was running out of time. Eva was dying. She was getting sicker and sicker. Deirdre Carolyn Derflinger was Eva's primary care nurse. It was a very real possibility that she could die before she got a heart. Many people do. Not knowing when or if a donor would come through,

Dr. LaFrac sent his wife, Trudy, and their four girls on a family holiday trip without him. He only had one thing on his mind. Dr. LaFrac and his team, they're looking for a heart. They have somebody to save. And then it came. The call they'd been waiting for. It's a go. It for a heart. They have somebody to save. And then it came. The call they'd been waiting for. It's a go. It's a go.

Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. Dr. LaFrac and his team were getting ready to make history, about to become the first team in the greater DC area to attempt a heart transplant. They had finally found the perfect donor for Eva Bazy. Did you know anything about the donor at that point? No, I really did not know anything about the donor. I think they called me and told me it was a donor with a gunshot wound to the head.

But it wasn't Karen Ermerd. In the perfect narrative, Karen Ermerd's heart would have been the one that saved Eva Basie. But that's not how it happened. Things are not always that simple. It was the killer's heart that saved Eva Basie. But that's not how it happened. Things are not always that simple. It was the killer's heart that saved Eva Basie.

After Mark Wiley shot his ex-girlfriend, Karen Irmer, dead, he paused. He waited in the house until the police arrived and started knocking on the door, and then he shot himself in the forehead. So if the relationship was over, then life was going to be over. Yes. For both Karen and for him. That's correct. Mark Wiley was declared brain dead, but his heart was still beating. How was it still beating? The bullet passed through both hemispheres of the brain.

Somehow, when that happens, often but not always, the heart keeps beating. By the time you arrive at this apartment, he's gone. Yes. He's been transported to the hospital. Yes. His body was rushed to the same hospital where Eva Baze lay dying, as the transplant coordinator sought permission from Mark's parents to donate their son's still-beating heart.

Mark's father, Larry Wiley, gave a brief voice-only statement to local media. Two families have suffered a terrible tragedy, one that can never be totally healed. Hopefully, something good can come out of this tragedy. They were good people. They were horrified, they were in grief, and, you know, they made the right call. Eva Baze was wheeled down to operating room six. I said a prayer for her. I'm a firm believer in prayer. We're excited for her, but we're also terrified. I mean, she could die downstairs.

Dr. LaFrac and his team gathered in operating room 12 to remove, for the first time, a living, beating heart. They had been working with corpses in the morgue. Heart transplantation was not taught in colleges, in medical schools at the time. The only way to learn it was to do it. I would do a regular heart operation in the morning and then be in between Operations go to the morgue with the team and then go back to the operating room doctor You were learning how to perform heart transplants on your lunch hour Because you could say that but this time it was for real as Ready as you were

Was any part of you? At all a little scared? No, not at all. I felt totally comfortable with it because I had done this many times in the morgue. You play like you practice. Exactly, yeah. Dr. LaFrac began to remove the donor heart. Lafrak is a man with a pair of scissors. And he essentially cut it out of that body with scissors that aren't very different from what a second grader would use to cut colored paper. They're just scissors. We cut, cut, cut, cut, cut the aorta,

cut the pulmonary artery, and then the heart is free. Taking a heart out of a donor takes five minutes. It's pretty easy. So we take it out cold, because we put cold solution in it, and then immediately put it in bags with ice. The heart, which ideally shouldn't stay outside the body more than four hours, was bagged and put into an igloo cooler, the same kind you buy at the supermarket.

When we were gathering all our supplies, it was like, well, who's got a cooler? I said, well, I got an igloo cooler. So you brought your cooler in from home? I brought my cooler in from home. I still have that cooler. from home? I brought my cooler in from home. I still have that cooler. The cooler with the heart was carried from OR 12, 90 feet down the hall, to OR 6, Eva's room. What was the mood like in OR 6? I think it was a high, real high sense of anticipation. Oh my gosh, we're really doing this. 12 is trauma and despair. 6 is hope. Yeah, absolutely. And you know that we're really doing this. Twelve is trauma and despair. Six is hope. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, that we're fixing somebody.

Dr. LaFrac began replacing Eva's dying heart with the healthy one. You remove Eva's heart, and now what? Once it's out, now we take the donor heart out of the cooler and have to do a little preparing on it to sew it into this big empty space, which is quite a dramatic scene. There's a person lying there on the operating table, Eva, with her chest open and no heart. And she is alive because she's getting circulation through the heart-lung machine.

He began to sew the new heart into Eva's chest. The back wall of Eva's heart was left in place. That makes it much easier to sew the donor heart to Eva. After about 45 minutes, the new heart was in Eva Baze's chest. Now came the moment of truth. Usually, you need an electric shock. You have those paddles that you use. In this case, there was like this odd alchemy, and the heart just started beating.

That must have been... It was incredible. Exhilarating and very rewarding. See, I get tearful if I even say it. And is that the moment you think to yourself, did it? No, I don't usually think like that, because it's not over until it's over until she goes home.

Join the conversation with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter. Tonight's 48 Hours will continue. to a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman,

the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10

that would still avert it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse

and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Every detective has a case that haunts you. And this case will haunt me until the day I die. The Karen Ermit murder case was closed. The killer was dead. But Detective Tommy Lee couldn't let it go. He went to her funeral.

You didn't know her? No, but I had some time with her mother. It would have been wrong for me not to go pay respects to Karen, whose life was cut so short. There's no way you can wipe away the central tragedy of the story. A deeply disturbed man killed an innocent young woman. You can only move on from it and say something positive happened as a result. The Washington area's first heart transplant case is a dramatic story of one district woman's life renewed. It was huge news.

The first heart transplant recipient in the greater Washington, D.C. area had made it through the operation. A 20-year-old mother of two is in serious but stable condition in Fairfax Hospital tonight. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. I was very touched and happy by the fact that she was doing well and had gotten through the surgery. Finally, Eva Baze opened her eyes. I just woke up. Like, I just went to sleep that night,

like any other night, you know. I had forgotten that I was sick when I woke up. And I just wanted to go home the next day. I'm like, you know, go home, you know, I'm ready. Meanwhile, they're like, what part of transplant didn't you understand? Exactly, yes. She didn't know it,

but the hardest part was still to come. The fight against her body's natural instinct to reject her new heart. Transplant coordinator Mary Beth Madoes. Their body never, never accepts that heart as their own. It's always somebody else's genes. So we have to fool it, always. The way to fool the body is with anti-rejection drugs. And since Eva was patient number one,

Dr. LaFrac was teaching himself all about it. It was a delicate balancing act of suppressing her immune system to prevent rejection, without leaving her too vulnerable to infection. It was quite a while she was in the hospital. I think every time Eva had rejection, I was worried that we would lose her because her rejections were quite severe sometimes.

Eva was quarantined to guard against infection. You looked like from the movies now where people go into the room where someone has Ebola or something. You know, we put booties on and the head coverings and gowns and everything just to go into the room. She must have felt so isolated and scared in there. It was difficult. That was the hardest. I want to see my babies. They would let my mom come in,

and she had to stand in a corner for five minutes with a mask on and gloves, you know. So you couldn't hug? No, no. As the weeks ticked by, Eva seemed to be doing well medically, but struggled in her small, lonely world, says Deirdre, who was one of her few connections to the outside. It's very lonely. That's why I used to stay after sometimes and just sit with her so that she had some company.

I mean, we'd try and bring her in things if she wanted it, or, you know, we'd get her stuff from home and bring it in. We did whatever we could to keep her more comfortable. Eva was particularly upset one day, and she said, I just, I want to get out of here. I want to breathe fresh air. So Deirdre devised a plan. She carefully cleaned her car, put Eva in a mask and gloves, and the two hit the road. We just went out for a drive.

They even stopped at McDonald's. She got a hamburger and I think a Coke or something, and she wanted french fries. I think we ditched the french fries. I said, let's not push it. I'd like to keep my job. God bless Deirdre, huh? Yeah. And oh my God, it was the best burger I've ever had. I was so tired of hospital food. Dr. LaFrac had reluctantly agreed to the outing, but Deirdre and Eva kept the

fast food part a secret. I mean, we gave her guidelines, but she wasn't a big guideline person. I mean, we gave her guidelines, but she wasn't a big guideline person. It turns out that the transplant transformed more than just the patient. Surgeons aren't usually known for their bedside manner. Yeah, that's how he was in the beginning. In the beginning? Yes. He's very quiet.

He's very quiet. He's very, um, hi, Eva, I'm going to inject this into you and bye, Eva. Straight to the point and get out my room. How did that relationship evolve? I think that he was happy that it was a success. So he became a little more open. And then eventually he's, you know, just came out of his shell. I learned to love Eva and accept all parts of her. I Love You is not standard operating procedure

between a surgeon and patient. No, I don't think I've ever had that kind of relationship with any other patient. Yeah. Dr. LaFrac wasn't the only one falling under Eva's spell. She's so thankful and kind. She feels appreciated, so you appreciate back. Nearly two months after being wheeled in so close to death,

Eva Basie was finally given the okay to walk out the hospital doors. The day she was ready to go home, the whole team was there to say goodbye to Eva and her mom was there. I just want to thank everybody for helping my daughter. It was a wonderful time. I mean, that was so exhilarating to see her go out that door and to know she had gotten through this. Did you allow yourself a moment when she did go home to think to yourself, I have now accomplished a heart transplant? Yeah, that was a good day. I can picture exactly her getting into the car.

Patient number one went home, but it would be years before she learned the whole story behind her new heart. It's going to be a very special Valentine's Day for one district woman. Eva Baze finally went home. But life was not the same. At first, she could only see her kids an hour a day due to the risk of infection, and she was told she could never work as a nurse. Doctors were concerned that she would be susceptible to disease if she worked around sick people. The procedure that saved her life was going to cost her her job.

More than her job, it was going to cost her her dream. She wanted to work with babies and old people. Instead, Eva concentrated on raising her two children, Shakita and Antonio. She always asked the Lord to just let her see us make it until 18. So I think that that was her main drive behind staying alive with her kids. Stay alive she did, surpassing all expectations. We thought transplant people were going to live five years.

I think it was actually a shock to her after five years that we said to her, you know, you're still here, maybe you need to get a job. Dr. LaFrac agreed. Eva was doing so well, he changed his mind. She could work in health care after all. She's been helping sick people deal with their health problems ever since. I'll tell them my story about my, you know, the transplant. I say things are not always going to be like this. I promise you they will get better. And they do.

Eva continued to defy the odds. Five years became 10. 10 became 15. 15 became 30. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary, Eva. Happy December 28th. Last December 28th, Dr. LaFrac made the call he's made on that date every year. What did you do on Christmas? Since the transplant. What do you say to each other in that anniversary phone call? Well, I congratulate her and usually tell her that I love her. I'll keep in touch with you, I love you. You know what?

So this isn't just your doctor. Yeah, he's my friend. You know, I still call him Dr. Frack, but he's my friend now. Yeah, I love him. I love him dearly. And the feeling is quite mutual. What is that all about? is quite mutual. What is that all about?

I don't know. I just, I respect her and, you know, sorry, but I just, I just love her. I don't know what it's about. Just really appreciate her. And it's all, it's all good. I just hope she lives forever. Eva Baze, who had a life expectancy of one to five years,

is now one of the longest living heart transplant recipients in medical history. 20 years is considered great. Eva just celebrated her 33rd anniversary. Why do you think she's doing so well? Why has she done so well and lived so long? Some of it is luck, and a lot of it is tenacity. She's really sweet, but if she didn't have a certain amount of tenacity, backbone, and grit grit she wouldn't have gotten out 33 years. Dr. LaFrac, celebrating here with his five daughters, retired 10 years ago. He happily tossed his pager into the Potomac. Toasting a next chapter, he was determined to make great. At 76, he recently rode in a 100-mile bicycle race.

The heart transplant program he started continues to thrive, and so does his message, best summed up by patient number one. It's okay to let your loved one's organs be donated to help someone else's loved ones. I was naive to donation until it actually happened to me. And I think a lot of us are until we actually know someone. Now I'm Eva and you know me. It works. Eva Baze never knew the whole truth about the heart that saved her life. Thank you very much. Oh, thank you.

It wasn't until Gene Weingarten published his book, One Day, that she learned the full story. A story that led back to that senseless murder of Karen Ermert by her estranged boyfriend, Mark Wiley. Do you ever think about her, Karen, now that you know a little bit more since Jean wrote the story? I do now, yes. I wish she would be a mom. I wish she had grandkids.

I think about her a lot now. If you could speak to Karen's family, what would you want to say to them? I'm sorry. Thank you. You know, in the movie version, you get her heart. And in real life, you got his heart. Does it make any difference to you? No.

It's just, it's a heart. It's an organ. It's not a murder organ. And it's just an organ that happened to save my life. And the story here is what the person who received the organ does with the extra years she then gets. That is correct. When you heard this woman, Eva Basie, got a heart, and she's still alive 33 years later,

does that help you make any sense of what happened? It does. It really does. It lightens my soul to know that somebody got a second chance at life out of the tragedy that happened. And so it seems Gene Weingarten was right. There is no such thing as an ordinary day. No way to make sense of who lives and who dies at any given time. Perhaps all we can do is treasure the memories

of those now gone and thank the heavens, and in this case, a team of extraordinary doctors and nurses for those who still walk among us. And I'm still here, you know, and I just, how blessed I am. To sign up to be an organ donor,

visit the National Donate Life Registry at registerme.org. This is terrifying. This is a senseless murder. This is not a minor point. This is... at registerme.org. It's $800,000. This is the moment of truth. This is, this is, this is the dark web. This is terrifying. My name is Eura. A few clicks and you could hire a hitman. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.