June 28, 2002

5,455 Brains and Counting

By LILA GUTERMAN

The phone has been ringing all morning on Patricia A. Georgopoulos's desk, but the most important call comes around 10 a.m. "Samuel Curry. What time did he die?" she asks. "What's his diagnosis?"

Ms. Georgopoulos is the administrative coordinator for the world's largest brain bank, located at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric teaching facility of Harvard Medical School. It's her job to talk to prospective brain donors and their families as well as to coordinate, when donors die, the