Today Adam Burkhart is the picture of health. It's hard to believe that he was near death, waiting for a heart transplant 10 years ago. Adam suffered from cardiomyopathy...a disease which enlarges and weakens the heart.
Doctors at that time thought I'd be in my late 30's when I'd need a transplant. Turns out it was 2000 I started going down hill. Went into the hospital in March..didn't leave the room behind me until September 21...day after my 18th birthday...and had the heart transplant September 14th.
8 months is a long time for a high school senior to be away from his Zanesville home. His parents were constantly driving back to forth to Columbus. Everything in his life was put on hold. And Adam waited.
You had your good days and your bad days. I definitely got down. When it was 5, 6, 7 months waiting it started looking doubtful, especially with all the numbers running through my head...that 18 people die every day waiting on an organ.
I was definitely one of the lucky ones.
So lucky that Adam's transplanted heart has let him lead a healthy, active life for the past 10 years. He's getting married, after recently proposing to his fiancé Kali. He works in construction with his father...and Adam is certainly making the most of his second chance at life. A second chance he knows would not have been possible without the gift of a transplant. Adam has expressed his appreciation to his donor family through cards and letters, but they have not yet met.
I don't know how to say thank you. I don't know how to go about it.((mitch...take out the sentence "It's not uncommon for the donor family to go 10 plus years to meet recipients...so it's hard.)) They lost a loved one and they had to make a very difficult decision, and I don't know how I would thank them for that but they know I'm very grateful.
Adam works hard to stay healthy, knowing that he has to be vigilant with his medication and his diet, to keep his transplanted heart beating.
The main threat to a transplanted heart is cholesterol, so I watch what I eat, I don't eat salty foods, high fatty foods. Although I like a steak every once in awhile.
But in the back of his mind, Adam knows that he may need another heart transplant.
They say a transplanted hart ages twice as fast, so I got 10 years out of this one so far, I feel lucky and grateful for that. There's some people that don't get that. I know one guy he had his heart 20 years..that's amazing.
Dr. Benjamin Sun, a thoracic surgeon at the Ohio State University Medical Center, says research continues on how to lengthen the life of transplant patients. With improved anti-rejection drugs, transplant patients are living longer.
So the studies ongoing now are, what can we do in the first 6 months to a year that will take somebody like Adam and not give him 15 years, but 25 years....and more people 25 years.
So people like Adam could indeed receive a second heart transplant and do very well, for a long period of time after a second transplant.
Well, we're looking at these pinwheel ..do you know how many pinwheels are here?
Adam: 7 thousand I hear? That a lot.
Gail: It means 7 thousand organ transplant have happened here at OSU ..and you're one of them.
Adam: I think mine's that one right there.
Gail: I think they'll let you take it home...
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Teresa meets her life-saving bone marrow donor - Council Meeting 2010by bethematch4,661 views
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