Family Mourns Organ Donor Son, But ‘Hears’ Heartbeat In Vietnam Vet He Saved
Inquisitr
November 26, 2014
Matt Heisler, a 21-year-old organ donor attending the University of North Dakota, probably wasn’t aware that he would be called to service at such a young age, but it was never a decision he took lightly, according to his dad.
“He made the decision that if life ever slipped away from him, he would give life to someone else,” said Jared Heisler.
And since Matt’s untimely death in a house fire in March, he’s been on a life-saving spree. KARE 11 reports that Matt has helped more than 60 people, including a 46-year-old woman, who received one of Matt’s kidneys. The other went to a 56-year-old woman. His liver saved the life of a 61-year-old man.
But perhaps most touching of all because the Heislers could actually hear it; his heart went to a Vietnam veteran diagnosed with the potentially deadly condition of amyloidosis.
Tom Meeks was told that without a heart transplant, he would not be able to survive. He was passed over three times due to his age, but the Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota, was finally able to conduct the life-saving operation thanks to Matt’s decision to become an organ donor at 16.
The Heislers — his parents and younger sister, Casey — finally got to meet Meeks this month, eight months after they said goodbye to their loved one. Casey broke down when she heard her brother’s heartbeat working inside Meeks’ chest.
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Showing posts with label heart transplant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart transplant. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Vietnam Veteran Among 60 Lives Saved By Organ Donor
A friend said I should offer a warning before going to the link to watch the video on this. Make sure you have tissues first.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Veteran is one of longest living heart transplant patients
Rick Hawkins one of many successful heart transplant patients at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center
The Associated Press
Health and Medicine
Jan 11, 2014
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - James L. Hill was 31 when he had a heart transplant at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in January 1984, the hospital's 27th heart transplant patient at the time.
At age 61, Hill, of Richmond, last Tuesday celebrated 30 years of living with a transplanted heart, making him one of the longest-living heart transplant survivors in the United States.
"I feel great," Hill said at a program at McGuire recognizing him and marking 33 years the veterans hospital has had a heart transplant program.
"I just thank God for the doctors who did the surgery and the nurses who put up with me, and my wife," said Hill. Hill's wife, Vickie, and their children and grandchildren were with them at the program.
The first human heart transplant in the world was done in December 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa.
In May 1968, Dr. Richard R. Lower of the Medical College of Virginia did the first human heart transplant in Virginia.
Dr. Szabolcs Szentpetery, who did Hill's surgery and who started the heart transplant program at McGuire, trained with Lower.
"It was one of those things that was love at first sight," Szentpetery said, referring to getting into transplant medicine after serving in Vietnam.
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The Associated Press
Health and Medicine
Jan 11, 2014
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - James L. Hill was 31 when he had a heart transplant at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in January 1984, the hospital's 27th heart transplant patient at the time.
At age 61, Hill, of Richmond, last Tuesday celebrated 30 years of living with a transplanted heart, making him one of the longest-living heart transplant survivors in the United States.
"I feel great," Hill said at a program at McGuire recognizing him and marking 33 years the veterans hospital has had a heart transplant program.
"I just thank God for the doctors who did the surgery and the nurses who put up with me, and my wife," said Hill. Hill's wife, Vickie, and their children and grandchildren were with them at the program.
The first human heart transplant in the world was done in December 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa.
In May 1968, Dr. Richard R. Lower of the Medical College of Virginia did the first human heart transplant in Virginia.
Dr. Szabolcs Szentpetery, who did Hill's surgery and who started the heart transplant program at McGuire, trained with Lower.
"It was one of those things that was love at first sight," Szentpetery said, referring to getting into transplant medicine after serving in Vietnam.
read more here
Monday, November 12, 2012
Vietnam vet denied heart surgery because of PTSD
Vietnam vet denied heart surgery because of PTSD
By Sarah Stemen
The Lima News, Ohio
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Nov. 11--LIMA
Bobbi Frysinger is now fighting for her father's life, who years ago, fought for his country.
Sixty-one-year-old Robbert Legge's story begins a little more than 40 years ago, when he was on the ground fighting in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Legge was drafted in May 1970 and was honorably discharged in May 1973.
Legge, of Lima, came back from the war, as many others did, plagued with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The haunting images of the war plus a divorce he later went through caused him to develop what Frysinger called "a mental disability."
After battling the illness for a few years, Legge has not had a bout and has been mentally healthy since. But that wasn't the only health problem that he came back with after the war.
He also has suffered congestive heart failure for years, directly linked to the Vietnam War, and has had two open-heart surgeries in the past 10 years to combat the problem, one in 2007 to fix two leaking heart valves. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officially certified his heart condition was 100 percent linked to his service in the war, Frysinger said.
Frysinger said her family was recently faced with three options for her father: a heart transplant; treat the symptoms, or in harsher terms, wait to die; or to undergo surgery where a left ventricular assist device is installed.
read more here
By Sarah Stemen
The Lima News, Ohio
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Nov. 11--LIMA
Bobbi Frysinger is now fighting for her father's life, who years ago, fought for his country.
Sixty-one-year-old Robbert Legge's story begins a little more than 40 years ago, when he was on the ground fighting in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Legge was drafted in May 1970 and was honorably discharged in May 1973.
Legge, of Lima, came back from the war, as many others did, plagued with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The haunting images of the war plus a divorce he later went through caused him to develop what Frysinger called "a mental disability."
After battling the illness for a few years, Legge has not had a bout and has been mentally healthy since. But that wasn't the only health problem that he came back with after the war.
He also has suffered congestive heart failure for years, directly linked to the Vietnam War, and has had two open-heart surgeries in the past 10 years to combat the problem, one in 2007 to fix two leaking heart valves. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officially certified his heart condition was 100 percent linked to his service in the war, Frysinger said.
Frysinger said her family was recently faced with three options for her father: a heart transplant; treat the symptoms, or in harsher terms, wait to die; or to undergo surgery where a left ventricular assist device is installed.
read more here
Saturday, August 30, 2008
2 men and 2 suicides, one heart, one widow
2 men and 2 suicides; but both had the same transplanted heart - and the same widow
By ALLEN G. BREED | AP National Writer
6:04 PM CDT, August 30, 2008
On an overcast spring morning in southeast Georgia, Sonny Graham drank some coffee and headed out the door for another day in the family landscaping business and to take his 9-year-old stepson to the dentist. But Graham made a detour to the backyard shed that he'd built.
There, the 69-year-old picked up the 12-gauge Remington shotgun he'd taken on so many quail- and dove-hunting trips, pointed the muzzle at the right side of his throat and pulled the trigger.
It was April Fool's Day, almost exactly 13 years since another man's suicide gave Graham a second chance at life.
That man was Terry Cottle. When he ended his life, Graham got his heart.
But it was not just an organ that connected Graham and the 33-year-old donor. Nearly a decade after the transplant, Graham married Cottle's young widow.
click post title for more
Has to be the strangest story I've ever read.
By ALLEN G. BREED | AP National Writer
6:04 PM CDT, August 30, 2008
On an overcast spring morning in southeast Georgia, Sonny Graham drank some coffee and headed out the door for another day in the family landscaping business and to take his 9-year-old stepson to the dentist. But Graham made a detour to the backyard shed that he'd built.
There, the 69-year-old picked up the 12-gauge Remington shotgun he'd taken on so many quail- and dove-hunting trips, pointed the muzzle at the right side of his throat and pulled the trigger.
It was April Fool's Day, almost exactly 13 years since another man's suicide gave Graham a second chance at life.
That man was Terry Cottle. When he ended his life, Graham got his heart.
But it was not just an organ that connected Graham and the 33-year-old donor. Nearly a decade after the transplant, Graham married Cottle's young widow.
click post title for more
Has to be the strangest story I've ever read.
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