Dying to Live Film Screening
This event is now closed.
Organ and tissue donation has the ability to transform and save lives. Dying to Live is a film that explores this difficult subject with compassion and grace. The screening is part of an event put on by Petra Brosch whose life was saved after receiving a heart transplant at The Alfred.
Event date
Event location
Palace Como Cinema, Toorak Road, South Yarra 3141
Late last year, at just 35 years old, Petra’s heart stopped working, suddenly and without warning.
Petra was running along Elwood Beach one evening when she started hyperventilating. She could not get enough air and collapsed on the sand. She was suffering from heart failure.
On arrival at The Alfred’s Emergency and Trauma Centre Petra was unconscious, had no blood pressure and no pulse – she was in cardiac arrest as a result of a heart problem she was unknowingly born with.
Petra remained in hospital for four months, including two months in The Alfred’s Intensive Care Unit. Her heart was so severely damaged it could no longer work on its own and ultimately she needed a heart transplant.
In a procedure lasting five hours, Petra received a new heart.
“It is because a generous gift from a total stranger who gave me their heart and due to the highly advanced medical equipment and experience of The Alfred that I am still alive. For this to happen ten minutes from The Alfred, with one of the best heart and critical care services and the only place in Victoria I could have a transplant, was beyond lucky. I am just so grateful.”
To honour her new life, Petra is passionate about encouraging others to become organ donors and supporting The Alfred, the hospital that kept her alive.
People already signed up to be organ donors are encouraged to bring along a friend or loved one who may benefit from seeing the impact these physical philanthropists can have a the life of another.
It is also an opportunity to raise funds to support transplant services at The Alfred and thank the generous Australians and their families who saved and transformed the lives of people like Petra needing a transplant through organ donation.