KQED Plus: Tue, Dec 11, 2012 -- 11:00 PM

This documentary reveals the powerful emotions and cutting-edge science involved in vital organ transplant. Told through multiple real-life stories, viewers meet a daughter who shares half of her liver to save her father's life; the recipient of a lung transplant who reaches out to his deceased donor's family; and two mothers who nurse their sons through multiple transplants, with only one mother getting a happy ending. Filmmaker Denny Mahoney received a 2008 liver transplant via a live donation from his nephew Matthew. He recovered well, and worked tirelessly to address the fact that every day, 19 people in the United States die waiting for an organ transplant, and every 12 minutes, another person is added to the transplant list. Transplant: A Gift for Life premiered locally on Twin Cities Public Television just weeks after Mahoney's death from cancer in March 2012. In this program, you'll see the real parents and children, co-workers and friends, physicians and scientists whose lives are a testimony to the fact that a tragic death - or inspirational generosity - of one person can pull another back from the brink, offering a second chance at life.