Do hearts have memories? Transplant patient gets craving for food eaten by organ donor

A transplant patient has developed an insatiable craving for junk food - after receiving a new heart from a teenager with a taste for fatty snacks.



David Waters is the latest example of an extraordinary phenomenon which sees some transplant recipients take on the characteristics of the donor.



Before being given the heart of 18-year-old Kaden Delaney, who was left brain dead after a car crash, Mr Waters, 24, had 'no desire at all' for Burger Rings, ring-shaped hamburger-flavoured crisps.



Transplant: David Waters received the heart from Kaden Delaney (top right). David holds Kaden's baby sister who was born after he passed away. He now craves Burger Rings - one of Kaden's favourite snacks



It was two years before he found out why the cravings had started suddenly after his operation.

Kaden's family tracked him down to see who had benefited from their son's heart,

and they began exchanging emails. A curious Mr Waters then asked: 'Did Kaden like Burger Rings? That's all I seemed to want to eat after my surgery.'



He was astonished to hear that he ate them daily.



The case in Australia adds weight to a theory that the brain is not the only organ to store memories or personality traits.



Scientists say there are at least 70 documented cases of transplant patients having personality changes which reflect the characteristics of their donor.



Other astonishing examples include the case of American Sonny Graham, who received the heart of Terry Cottle, who had shot himself in the head.



After the transplant in 1995 Mr Graham met Mr Cottle's widow Cheryl, falling in love and marrying her.



Twelve years later Mr Graham picked up a gun and shot himself in the throat, leaving Cheryl a widow for the second time grieving for husbands who had shared a heart.

In another example, an eight-year-old girl received the heart of a murdered ten-year-old and began having terrifying dreams about a man murdering her donor.



Until then, the murderer had not been caught, but recollections from the girl's dream were so precise that police were able to track down the killer and he was convicted.



Mr Waters, from Adelaide, had been suffering from a stiffening of the heart ventricles and been given only a few months to live when he was given the heart of Kaden, from New South Wales.



But despite his belief that he might have 'caught' Kaden's craving for the snack food, a transplant expert cautioned against reading too much into the link.



Jeremy Chapman, Sydney-based president of the International Transplantation Society, said: 'There is no scientific basis of such a claim.



'There's so much fiction around transplants.'



But other researchers say the phenomenon, which is known as 'cellular memory', is not limited to those who have received new hearts.