November 1, 2017
I came across this while listening to a podcast yesterday.
If you are even a casual baseball fan, you will recognize the name Rod Carew, the 18-time All-Star and Hall of Famer who led the American League in batting on seven different occasions.
Unless you are a hard-core football fan, chances are you don’t recognize the name Konrad Rueland, who played parts of three NFL seasons with the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens in 2012, 2013 and 2o15.
When Reuland was 15 years old, he met the legendary Carew at a middle school basketball game, and bragged about it the rest of the day.
In September of 2015, Carew, who was then 69 years old, suffered a massive heart attack, and ended up on the transplant list.
Last November, Reuland suffered a massive brain aneurysm. Two weeks later, he was declared brain-dead. He was kept on a ventilator so that his organs could be harvested. He was 29 years old.
Four days later, Reuland’s heart was implanted in Carew’s chest.
On the day that he died, Rueland’s mother spent hours with her right ear pressed against his chest, listening to his hart beat. This past April, Reuland’s family visited the Carews, and Reuland’s mother listened to his heart beating inside Rod Carew.