Nicholas Green and the Gift That Saved the Lives of Seven People Waiting for Transplants

It was September 29, 1994, the life of a family, living in California, suddenly changes during a vacation in Italy . While traveling on the Salerno-Reggio highway, the car carrying Reginald Green, his wife Maggie and their two children, is approached by a car from which a hail of bullets is fired . Nicholas, 7 years old , is rushed to the Messina hospital but after two days his brain death is confirmed . His parents decide to donate his organs , causing a wave of solidarity that swept over Italy and a surge in donations, at a time when very few people did so: it was called the "Nicholas Effect".

Reginald and Margaret Green’s decision to donate their son’s organs saved seven people waiting for a transplant. The story became a real media case , a collective tragedy that, thanks to the courage of the Green family, managed to clear the taboo of organ donation in our country. On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Nicholas Green’s death, “Nicholas Effect” will be broadcast on Friday 27 June in prime time on Rai2 , a documentary – produced by Endemol Shine Italy for Rai Documentari – that tells the tragic story and what happened afterwards.

The Endemol Shine Italy documentary for Rai Documentari , conceived and written by Carmen Vogani with Lorenzo Avola , thoroughly analyses what has been a true cultural revolution in Italy , recounting the evolution of organ transplants in our country and how the Green family's choice served as an example and inspiration in Italy, where today there is medical excellence in the field of transplants.

The National Transplant Centre and the Green family themselves joined the documentary, participating in the project in person with the direct testimonies of Reginald Green, Nicholas' father , his wife Margaret, and their daughter Eleanor, who was sleeping next to her older brother that terrible night in 1994.

The father of the American child killed by robbers on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway talks about the documentary Effetto Nicholas and relives those dramatic days: "Our gesture back then tripled the donations. We often return to Italy and so many people still feel close to him". And again "Many memories crowd into my mind, but the most vivid is the shock I felt that day when I stopped the car, looked at Nicholas and saw his tongue sticking out and a trace of vomit on his chin. That was the first moment I realized that one of the bullets they had fired at us had hit him. I can still see that terrible moment in my mind as if it had happened yesterday".

The release of the documentary 'Nicholas Effect' on Rai2 "is very important" and should also be shown "in schools". This is explained by Dr. Silvia Maria Pulitanò, Coordinator of organ and tissue donation for transplant purposes - Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli, IRCCS - Rome. "In our country, much more information is needed on the topic of transplants. We should talk about the culture of giving".

" The culture of donation has made great strides since then - Pulitanò said - in research and implementation of transplant surgery. Now transplants are performed in all hospitals, they help many people. There are many transplant centers". Specifically, "the National Transplant Center, with the regional centers that are 19, with all the local coordinators in the hospitals and all the people who work to get to the transplant, form one of the largest networks in the National Health System".

Donating organs "is voluntary and conscious - explained Dr. Pulitanò - Anyone of age can express consent to donation ". However, there are still some resistances: "There are also discrepancies in the expression of will based on age groups - she explained - with peaks of opposition in the younger age groups, 18-30, perhaps due to misinformation. Another peak where there is opposition is that of the over 70 age group, perhaps because it is thought that, once you have passed a certain age, you can no longer donate. And that is not correct because there are no age limits".