JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Action News has learned the woman who was left waiting for a heart after a helicopter sent to pick one up for her crashed in Clay County may be getting a second shot.
Family friends tells us she spent the day at the Mayo Hospital after receiving a call Thursday morning that a new heart was available.
"There are blessings in everything and I'm so glad they found a donor," said J.T. Rhodes.
Rhodes is the head of the local Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO). He also goes to church with the Jacksonville woman who could have become the fourth victim in the crash if something wasn't done quick.
"She's lucky to get a heart so quickly," he said.
Rhodes knows first-hand what a blessing organ donation is. If it wasn't for an organ donor, he wouldn't be alive today.
"Organ transplantation is truly a gift of life," he said.
He tells Action News he learned of her good news Thursday morning.
She didn't relieve a heart after a helicopter on its way to Gainesville to pick it up crashed in the woods of Clay County.
The crash killed Mayo Clinic cardiac surgeon Luis Bonilla, technician David Hines, and pilot E. Hoke Smith.
Citing privacy rules, Mayo Hospital would not disclose her condition.
It remains unknown if the surgery was successful.
