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Heart Patient Heads To Fenway

Huckins Awaits Heart, Kidney Transplant

POSTED: 6:52 pm EDT September 23, 2004
UPDATED: 2:00 pm EDT September 24, 2004

Even at one of the top hospitals in the world, the best medicine can come from unusual places -- even the Red Sox.

Video
Jorge Quiroga Reports On Fan
Organ Donation
NewsCenter 5's Jorge Quiroga reported that the nursing staff at Massachusetts General Hospital decided the best thing for Gordon Huckins, a patient waiting for a heart transplant, was a trip to Fenway Park to see his beloved Red Sox.

"(The nurse) gave me a card announcing we were going, and I just cried. I was just so happy," said Huckins.

Huckins, 57, has been in the hospital since February, awaiting a heart and kidney transplant.

"I have never been to Fenway before. I am a dairy farmer up in New Hampshire and most of my games were in the milking parlor watching it on the TV in the parlor," he said.

"I have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks -- just to see his look on his face for the first time into Fenway," said Matthew Nippins, Huckins' physical therapist.

It has taken a team of nurses and doctors seven months to get Huckins strong enough for a transplant. The same team organized the trip to Fenway.

"This is another family to me now. They are a lot more than just nurses and doctors -- they are all part of my family," said Huckins.

Huckins rode to the game in a limousine with his wife and three members of his critical care staff. Huckins will sit in the 406 Club, so he can keep his heart pump plugged in.

"It is a safer situation to have him plugged in. We could not have him out in the elements," said Nippins.

"What more could you ask for, huh?," asked Huckins. "My surgeons said I could have a (beer), too."

One nurse said they have not been able to get Huckins the heart and kidney he needs yet, but at least they could give him this gift that he will remember forever.

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