Story of a (missed) photo opportunity
My friend Anne is the media coordinator for our local children's hospital. She organized the photo op for the picture at right, a 12-year old heart transplant patient with his old, enlarged heart. Our major local paper, the Edmonton Journal, declined the photo op. I don't know why--I guess they thought a boy holding his own heart wouldn't make a good news photo.
Anyway, the Edmonton Sun (the other paper) took this picture, it was carried on the wire and picked up by something like 1200 media outlets around the world. It's one of the most emailed photos on Yahoo!. Here's the caption: "Twelve-year-old Shane Bowman plays with his old heart in Edmonton, Canada on Friday, July 11, 2003. Bowman had a heart transplant and got a chance to see his old heart to have some closure on his illness. Bowman had dialated cardiomyopathy, a condition caused by a virus, and his heart was enlarged to about 555 grams. A normal heart is about 200 grams. (AP Photo/CP/Edmonton Sun, Perry Mah)"
Some editor at the Journal is kicking himself for missing this one.
Posted by Gene Smith on Jul 18, 2003
