Raised in Maryland, Chris Gregory was a 19-year-old freshman at Loyola University in New Orleans, a Jesuit college. The 2 Hearts true story confirms that he had completed one semester and was in the middle of his second. He hadn't put enough focus on his studies during the previous semester and his grades had suffered. However, he had finally begun to turn a corner. Chris had also started to rush a fraternity.
Yes. It's based on the book All My Tomorrows: A Story of Tragedy, Transplant and Hope written by Chris Gregory's father, Eric Gregory.
Yes. It's true that by all accounts, Chris had been a healthy college freshman when he collapsed suddenly from a ruptured brain aneurysm. Similar to what's seen in the movie, the true story reveals that he collapsed while hanging out in a friend's apartment. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, his friends carried him to their car and rushed him to the Tulane University Medical Center where the diagnosis was eventually made. The neurologists cautioned his family that Chris's prognosis was somewhat dire.
Ever since he was a boy, Jorge had suffered from a life-threatening lung disease called primary ciliary dyskinesia. However, he wasn't diagnosed with the disease until he was in his fifties. Doctors had previously wrongly diagnosed him with cystic fibrosis. His parents had feared that he wouldn't live past 12 years old. However, he defied expectations and survived for decades, but his breathing became increasingly labored. In his early sixties, Jorge was on oxygen and near death's door. He desperately needed a double-lung transplant.
Yes. In the movie, Jorge meets his future wife Leslie while he is on an airplane and she is working as a flight attendant. Jorge asks Leslie to hold his hand during the takeoff to help keep him calm. The 2 Hearts true story reveals that the real Leslie was indeed working as a Pan Am flight attendant when she met Jorge Bacardi. According to Leslie, Jorge asked her to hold his hand to keep him calm during the landing. However, Jorge's version of the story is that Leslie was a rather flirtatious flight attendant who presented him with two sets of children's pilot's wings. -All My Tomorrows
Yes. Jorge and his wife Leslie were residing in the Bahamas when they found out that a matching organ donor had passed away. Jorge, then 64, had a plane available at a moment's notice in case a pair of lungs ever showed up on the donor list. He and Leslie got the call on March 27, 2008, and they flew to Jacksonville where Jorge underwent a double-lung transplant at the Mayo Clinic medical center. The operation took seven hours.
Yes. Less than 24 hours after his seven-hour-long double-lung transplant surgery, Jorge's breathing tube had been removed and he was strolling the halls of the hospital. The nurses indeed nicknamed him "Superman."
Yes. At first, Jorge didn't know who his donor was, so he wrote a letter to his donor's family via the United Network for Organ Sharing in hopes it would reach Chris's parents. In late 2009, Jorge and his wife learned the identity of the donor and eventually met the Gregory family at the family's home in Baltimore. Jorge got to learn all about Chris, the 19-year-old who saved his life. The families remained in touch until Jorge's death on September 23, 2020, less than a month before the release of the 2 Hearts movie.
In 2011, Jorge and his wife funded The Gabriel House of Care on the Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville campus where Jorge had his transplant surgery. The building offers long-term housing to oncology and transplant patients who are being treated at the clinic.