The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in America's Segregated South

by Chip Jones

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out in this landmark investigation of racial inequality at the core of the heart transplant race.

In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia's top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart stolen out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves , Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker's death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family's permission or knowledge. The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s.

Featuring years of research and fresh reporting, The Organ Thieves is a story that resonates now more than ever, when issues of race and healthcare are the stuff of headlines and horror stories.

352 pages, Paperback

Published February 10, 2022

About the author

Chip Jones has been reporting for nearly thirty years for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times, Virginia Business magazine, and others. As a reporter for The Roanoke Times, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the Pittston coal strike. He is the former communications director of the Richmond Academy of Medicine, which is where he first discovered the heart stopping story in The Organ Thieves.

Reviews

[Lelia McKee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early chapters of the book were interesting, the trial section was informative but for "investigative journalism" many parts felt biased and sensationalized. The "where are they now" section felt like the end of a TV show.

[Isabella Valenzuela · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOOOOOW a must read

[Harry Adair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this book. Gave a detailed history of heart surgery progress in America and abroad and also delved into the grey area of how these hospitals were sourcing organs.