Carew got organs from NFL player

Hall of Famer Rod Carew received a new heart and kidney from the late NFL player Konrad Reuland in what is believed to be the first such transplant involving pro athletes.

Carew underwent the procedure in December and met Reuland’s family in March after mutual friends connected Reuland’s death with news of Carew’s Dec. 16 transplant. Reuland had died four days earlier at 29 after a ruptured brain aneurysm.

Reuland attended middle school in Southern California with Carew’s children and was 11 when he met Carew.

“The whole thing is just unbelievable,” Carew told American Heart Association News. “I’ve been given a second chance, so I’m going to take advantage of it. And I’ve got another family.”

Reuland played for the Jets and Ravens. He also spent time with the 49ers and Colts, who released him in August.

The only details the Carew family received before the transplant were that the donor was “male, late 20s, local, exceptionally healthy.” The Reulands were told the recipient was a 71-yearold man from Orange County.

The two men’s blood type was the same, but the key factor was both were immune from Hepatitis B. No one ahead of Carew on the transplant list was immune.

Reuland’s parents, Ralf and Mary, and their youngest son Austin took turns listening through a stethoscope to Konrad’s heart beating inside Carew’s chest when they met the former baseball star and his wife, Rhonda, according to the AHAN.

“We are so thankful, so grateful,” Rhonda Carew told the Reulands. “There aren’t adequate words.”

The families plan to work together, especially on “Heart of 29,” the campaign Carew started last year with the American Heart Association. The program’s name came from Carew’s jersey number but carries added meaning because that was Reuland’s age when he died.