When Lori Wood, a nurse at Piedmont Newnan Hospital in Georgia, found out last December that one of her patients was removed from the heart transplant list, she knew she had to do whatever it took to get him back on it.
Jonathan Pinkard, 27, has autism, and was removed from the list because he didn't have anyone to take care of him after the surgery. He needed a person to drive him to appointments and ensure that he took his anti-rejection medications, but his mother was in a rehab facility and unable to help. Wood decided to ask Pinkard if she could become his legal guardian. "It was a no-brainer," she told Today. "He would have died without the transplant."
Wood and Pinkard have grown close, and together at home, they watch football and Family Feud. "We like game shows and high five back and forth if we get an answer right," Wood said. "He is very loving." Pinkard's heart transplant was in August, and Wood kept her promise, helping him keep track of the 34 pills he must take daily and driving him to doctor's appointments. "She treats me like one of her sons," Pinkard told Today. "I am truly thankful for that."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Scorching hot sauces that pack a punchThe Week Recommends The best sauces to tingle your lips and add a fiery kick to your food
-
Syria’s strange post-Assad electionThe Explainer Sunday’s limited vote ‘suited the phase Syria is undergoing’, says interim president
-
Why did the China spying case collapse?Today’s Big Question Unwillingness to call China an ‘enemy’ apparently scuppered espionage trial
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
