Most kids who slip folks a note asking for a Slurpee, the slushy, soda-based drink served at the local 7-11 store, would be answered by a perturbed parental glare. But when 12-year-old Sarah McPharlin of Grosse Pointe Woods did just that on Tuesday morning, Oct. 23, the request gave her mom and dad an overwhelming sense of joy, relief and a cause for celebration.

The Brownell Middle School sixth grader and avid soccer player had just awakened from a long-awaited, 12-hour heart transplant surgery at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. Though her request had to be denied for the pre-sent due to the breathing apparatus she depends on, it signaled the first glimmer of light at the end of a very dark tunnel that she and her family have been traveling since an irregularly slow heartbeat caused her to collapse in the Grosse Pointe Woods Lakefront Park pool on July 17, 2001.

After being diagnosed with myocarditis, a rare and sometimes fatal heart infection, which caused her heart, to stop beating five times in less than one month, McPharlin became the first child in Michigan to receive a Thoratec Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) system during a seven-hour surgical procedure at Children's Hospital on Sept. 6, 2001.

This measure was taken as a bridge to the heart transplant she desperately needed, but its effectiveness was definitely finite.

"She was deteriorating and it was very frightening," said her father Jim, a business analyst at Daimler Chrysler. "She was on the heart machine for almost two months and after a while, things seemed to be going downhill. We saw her failing right in front of us. We never knew when the new heart was going to come, so it was hard to com-fort her emotionally and keep her spirits up."

The good news finally arrived on Monday morning; Oct. 22. The McPharlins, who kept a daily vigil at their daughter's side, were home overnight caring for their other children, Katie, 16, and Emily, 3. As her mother Dianne, a special education teacher in the Grosse Pointe Public School System, recalled, "I was in the shower crying and praying that Sarah would get a heart. That's when we got the phone call letting us know that a heart was available."

"We were happy but cautious;" said Jim, who noted that the family had already endured one disappointment with a donor heart that proved not to be a good match.

"Sarah was ecstatic, she had tears of joy, then she was scared. It was a very understandable range of emotion.

"She knew it was the day we had all been waiting for, but she also knew the reality was that she was going to have to have surgery."

At 1 p.m., the McPharlins placed their little girl in the capable hands of a surgical team lead by Dr. Henry Walters. The procedure lasted until 1 a.m. the following morning.  Her family received their first indication of the success of the operation when Sarah responded to her doctor's request to squeeze his hand at 2 a.m.

Today, her prognosis is very bright. Though there will be some ups and downs and she will have to take anti-rejection medication, Sarah could be home by Thanksgiving and back in school in January. Her physicians are also confident that she will rejoin her team on the soccer field in the future.

The McPharlins are deeply grateful to the staff of Children's Hospital who more than lived up to their motto, "We treat your children like our own." And they are very appreciative of the efforts made by DaimlerChrysler, which provided the air transportation for the donated heart.

In addition, the McPharlins want to thank their family, friends and Sarah's classmates at Brownell who offered comfort and support during this long ordeal.

But they know that they are most deeply indebted to the family of the heart donor who had the courage to see beyond their own grief and make the decision to give Sarah the gift of life.

The irony of the situation was never far from their minds. According to Jim McPharlin, at one point Sarah asked whether her parents would donate her organs if she did not survive. When her mother assured Sarah that they would, Sarah said thank you.

"It's been hard to hope for a-heart knowing that another family has to go through the pain of losing someone," said Dianne. "But we are going to take care of this heart and I know that Sarah is going to make a difference in this world. The love from the donor family will live on in Sarah."

The McPharlins' experience has increased their faith in the power of prayer and offered a new appreciation for the value of the simple things in life.

Sarah also envisions a new role for herself. I think that she is going to be driven to do something about this," says Jim. "She has already said that she wants to go on the Oprah Show and get the message out about the importance of donating organs. And I think that she will encourage people to spend quality time with their families, because you never know."