RICHMOND, Va. — VCU Health unveiled a mural on Wednesday honoring Bruce Oliver Tucker, whose heart was taken without his family's consent for Virginia's first heart transplant.
“Humanity of the Heart” is the work of VCU students and Richmond artist Hamilton Glass, highlighting Tucker’s story and his profound impact on transplantation and medicine.
Tucker, a Black man, died after sustaining a severe head injury on May 25, 1968, according to VCU. He was 54. Without the consent or knowledge of his family, surgeons at the Medical College of Virginia removed Tucker’s heart and kidneys and placed his heart into a white man.
The acting state medical examiner at the time had permitted the transplant team to remove Tucker’s organs based on a Virginia law that authorized him to donate unclaimed bodies to medical schools or hospitals for scientific or education purposes, following a 24-hour waiting period to search for next of kin.
That waiting period was not granted for Tucker. His heart was removed less than an hour after he died.
It was Virginia’s first, and the world’s 16th, human-to-human heart transplant.
The mural was unveiled during a ceremony at the McGlothlin Medical Education Center on Wednesday afternoon. VCU leadership, Hamilton Glass, a student designer, and a representative of Tucker’s family gave remarks about the significance of the mural, which spans two walls outside the auditorium now named in Tucker’s honor.
“From this day forward, every student who matriculates through the VCU School of Medicine will know the name, and with the assistance of the mural, the story, of Mr. Bruce Tucker,” said Sheryl Garland, the Chief of Health Impact for VCU Health System.
Glass, who served as a mentor for the VCU students involved in the project, expressed his gratitude for being a part of the project.
“Projects like this speak way beyond what can go up on a wall,” Glass said. “They affect our community, and they talk about the heart of how we care.”
Gayle Turner, who is Tucker’s first cousin, once removed, began by remarking that “today is a great day.”
“We honor Bruce by how we live and how his story and legacy positively impacts the work of all healthcare professionals who are trained here,” Turner said. “Bruce was the unwitting victim of an institutional, racist system which devalued his life and did not acknowledge him as humankind.”
Turner hopes the mural can serve as a reminder to health care providers that all of their patients are important to someone.
"They are a human being, and kind of like the golden rule, you want to treat people like you would want them to treat you or treat your people," Turner said. "And so that's what I hope. When people see this, they get a constant reminder about humanity, and compassion, and empathy, and do their best."
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