Lucinda donated her heart to another woman and lived to tell the tale

Australian medical history - the heart donor who still walks the earth 20 years later Lucinda was the first ever Australian woman to have a lung, heart and liver transplant. (ABC News: Luke Bowden) A childhood photo of Lucinda in the early 1980s.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) When she was a baby Lucinda’s father noticed she tasted of salt when he kissed her forehead – a sign of cystic fibrosis.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) As a child in the 1980s, Lucinda’s parents were told she might not live beyond her 5th birthday.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) Lucinda with her parents at her 13th birthday — an age doctors warned her parents she may not reach.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) After being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in the early 1980s Lucinda defied early expectations.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) Lucinda said her wedding was a celebration of marriage and life.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) Lucinda and Damon Simpson on their wedding day in October 2002 with three of the doctors who cared for her during her 12-hour transplant operation and its aftermath.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) Professor Keith McNeil was part of the team that performed Lucinda's 12-hour transplant operation.(ABC News: Mark Leonardi) Lucinda, Damon, and Angus Simpson(ABC News: Luke Bowden) Lucinda was able to breathe properly again after her gruelling transplant operation.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) The marathon triple transplant operation at The Prince Charles Hospital took around 12 hours.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) As a teenager Lucinda was told she would need a lung transplant in her 20s.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) Lucinda, Damon and Angus watch their dogs Cinder and Oscar play in the backyard of their home in Tamborine Mountain.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) A selection of medications Lucinda has to take daily.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) Lucinda and Damon met when they bumped into each other at the shops and soon became inseparable.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) Twenty years after her triple organ transplant, the 45-year-old has defied expectations.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) Lucinda Simpson arranging the medications she takes each day.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) Professor Peter Hopkins, Director of the Queensland Lung Transplant Service at The Prince Charles Hospital, in Brisbane.(ABC News: Janelle Miles) Lucinda is believed to be the only woman in the world to have a baby after a lung, heart and liver transplant.(Supplied: Lucinda Simpson) A photo of Angus Simpson on a bookshelf.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) Angus and Damon Simpson playing videogames.(ABC News: Luke Bowden) It sounds like a fairy tale. A beautiful young woman gives her heart away and goes on to marry the man of her dreams. Lucinda Winnem's extraordinary true story is a little-known piece of medical history. On a winter's night in 2005, 24-year-old Lucinda became the first Australian woman to undergo a triple heart-lung-liver transplant at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane. At that stage, she was one of fewer than 20 people worldwide to have undergone the surgery. The triple organ transplant was lifesaving, not just for Lucinda but for another woman, a stranger, who was waiting for a donor heart. After being born with cystic fibrosis - a genetic condition...

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