The photograph of a beaming transplant patient holding her old, diseased heart in her hands has been lifting spirits across the Internet.
"This is my friend Penny. She is holding her own heart," writes Kelsey on photo-sharing site Imgur, where she posted the photo. "She has survived cancer and crippling heart failure but never lost hope."
The picture has collected hundreds of thousands of views, and many news outlets have taken notice.
Story continues after photo.
Penny, whose happiness radiates through the surgical mask, holds her old heart in her hands after transplant surgery. (Credit: Imgur/Kelsey)
"Penny's photo should be in the dictionary next to the word "badass" wrote one impressed commenter on BuzzFeed.
The organ was soon cremated after the photo, Kelsey mentioned on the Imgur post.
While The Huffington Post couldn't confirm the photo's authenticity at press time, Kelsey defended the picture on her Imgur profile. "I'm sorry if I sounded cranky but I'm getting a lot of people accusing me of making this up," she wrote. "I was just trying to share something inspiring."
Attempts to reach the cancer patient, Penny, were unsuccessful.
(h/t Fark)