Heart Recipient

Thomas Cook

I was still unconscious when my story hit the front page of the local newspaper. The sudden availability of a matching heart and a dramatic emergency transplant saved my life in 1989. I was twenty five.

The odds of a suitable heart becoming available for an immediate transplant are exceptionally slim. My family had to make the decision for me in 45 minutes. I was not told that the defective heart I was born with had been replaced with a healthy matching heart until a couple of days later when I was alert enough to understand.

The prior year I had been diagnosed with a Marfan Syndrome. I went to the hospital to have a valve replacement and two aneurysms repaired. After open heart surgery on January twenty third, my condition went downhill. On February 1, I was shocked with electricity over 47 times and had 30 "code blues." I was actually clinically dead 35 to 40 times. The cardiac team would not give up because they recognized my will to live.

That same day I received the gift of life from a trauma victim. Over the past 16 years since my transplant, I have celebrated life. In 1999, I married for the first time. That same year, I was introduced to the mother, Susan, of my donor, Jeff. She and I have built a unique relationship. I have also met my my donor's brother, sister and two nieces who never knew Jeff.

Amazingly enough, I have suffered minimal complications over the past 16 years. I do have some residual side effects from long term use of anti-rejection medication, but that’s a small price to pay for a new lease on life.