An Amazing Story of Organ Donation – How One Utah Family’s Decision During Grief Changed the Life of Young Doctor Who Is Giving Back to Children in Need

WHAT:
At 4 years old, Jon Hochstein was in the Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital ICU, in heart failure and on life support.

Just down the hall, a different family was grieving their 8-year-old son, fatally injured by a truck that hit him in his school’s crosswalk in Wendover, Utah.

These strangers’ paths would cross in the hospital that day, and both would be forever changed. 

Unknown to Jon’s family, a glimpse of Jon’s tiny feet sticking out of a blanket led the Wendover mother of the 8-year-old to change her mind about organ donation. As a result, Jon received his heart transplant, was able to grow up, graduate from Harvard University Medical School, and is about begin his residency at Boston Children’s Hospital so that he can help kids the way he was helped at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. 

It wasn’t until he was in college that Jon learned who his donor was, and soon after, he met the sister and mother whose choice for organ donation made it possible for him to give back as a doctor. 

News media is invited to hear from Jon and his heart donor’s sister, who will detail their amazing story and the importance of organ donation during a virtual press conference at 2 pm, MT, Tuesday, June 22, 2022. 

They will be joined by Jon’s family and the Intermountain Primary Children’s caregivers who helped during his care.

WHEN:
2 pm, MT, Wednesday, June 22, 2022

WHERE:
Zoom meeting invitation sent to media