Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 1999
Source: Calgary Sun (Canada)
Copyright: 1999, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html
Author: Nicole Bergot, Sun Media Edmonton

'HEART OF GOLD'

Transplant Donor Died Fleeing Cops

In the body of a Saskatchewan mom beats the transplanted "heart of gold" of
a 21-year-old man killed fleeing police.

"He was a very good-hearted person. He would have approved," Adam Miller's
mom told the Sun yesterday.

Allie Miller said she gave consent for the heart to be transplanted while
her son was on life-support.

"We said a goodbye to him with a prayer, with friends right at his bedside,"
said Allie.

Cheryl Olson, 31, received the life-saving heart transplant Saturday at the
University Hospital.

Miller died in hospital Saturday after leaping from a fourth-storey
apartment balcony as police burst into the suite.

A 15-year-old Calgary teen who also came off the balcony died at the scene
Friday.

Others arrested in the suite told police they thought the raid was a rival
drug-gang attack.

Knowing Adam's heart continues to beat inside the mother-of-two is helping
his family cope with the shocking death, said Allie.

"Now this woman's going to be able to go on with her husband and watch her
two kids grow up," said Adam's sister Tabby, 15.

Olson is recovering quickly from the transplant surgery.

"She has been awake and talked to her family," said Capital Health spokesman
Steve Buick.

Even beyond the normal risks for transplant patients like clotting,
bleeding, a stroke or rejection of the heart, Olson will have to come to
grips mentally with what has happened to her, Buick said.

"Any person who goes through an operation like this is under a great deal of
stress," he said.

"(Olson) woke up with a new heart after spending several days not knowing if
she was going to get one.

"It's not an easy thing."

Knowing how their son and brother died is not easy for the Millers, either.

Allie said her son was with someone he'd met only a week ago when police
burst into the apartment and "scared the hell" out of him.

The raid was part of a massive RCMP and city police move against Asian gang
drug traffickers in Edmonton, Red Deer and Fort McMurray after a 14-month
investigation.

"Had Adam known it was the police, he would not have jumped," said Allie.

"If he thought somebody was coming in to gun him down, he would have taken
the balcony."

Police arrested six people in the suite where a kilogram of cocaine was
later found.

Allie said her son, a Victoria composite high school graduate who worked for
a window company, was considering a career in either accounting or nutrition.

"Adam has a great heart, a heart of gold," Tabby said of the big brother who
lived at home with Allie, Tabby and his little brother Calvin, 9.

Adam's funeral will likely be held Thursday or Friday.

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