The stranger who saved my life

At 17 I was unable to sit my final school exams and did my university degree over seven years, instead of three.  

It was difficult being in my twenties with no choice but to sit by the sidelines and watch.

At first I would still go into the ocean for a swim, or go out with my friends but slowly the energy required to keep up became too much and I became less and less active.  

It didn’t really come as a shock when I was told that I would need a transplant. We had seen the heart failure team at The Alfred for many years and knew all along that it was inevitable.

The decision that I would need a transplant was made in 2011 and I began the long process of testing, before joining the waiting list.

At a clinic appointment, with my parents by my side, I was told that I would be listed - from that moment on, I was on notice for 24 hours a day to receive the phone call that would make me drop everything in my life for a chance to live- or possibly not.

865 days later, it was 12.30am, I was awake and talking to a transplant friend on Facebook.

My phone rang, which was a little strange so late at night but not totally out of the ordinary.  I looked down and it was a private number. That was strange.

After two and a half years of waiting for that call, the conversation was brief, “Hey, we think we have a heart for you- don’t panic, don’t rush but get here by about 2am. And please remember, this may be a false alarm”.  

Needless to say we panicked and we rushed.  

I had told my friends to expect a text message when I got the call, so as we drove in I sent a message to my closest friends, many of them later told me that I had ruined their night's sleep.

I finally went into theatre at about 7am, all the while being told that it still may be a false alarm. The last thing I remember was a gas mask coming down over my face and I asked “does this mean it isn’t a false alarm?”

I awoke in ICU to the sound of familiar doctors’ voices. Everything was immediately different. - my head was pounding and I could hear a pulse in my ears.

Then I felt it, my body physically pulsating from the strength of my new beating heart.

I slowly began to open my eyes as the doctors and nurses were still there, I was still intubated, they looked at me and smiled, “How are you feeling?” I gave two thumbs up.

On my first day in the rehab gym a week after transplant I was put on an exercise bike, painfully balancing, sitting upright and barely able to move my legs.

Lou, my transplant physio, pointed to a young girl running on the treadmill and told me that would be me in eight weeks. I did not believe her. I didn’t run.

As the weeks progressed though, I became stronger, my sternum began to heal and the drug doses began to taper. Within 10 weeks Lou was right, I was running.  

About two months after my transplant I was with some friends four-wheel-driving and I instinctively panicked when I had no phone reception- being phone ready and available for ‘the call’ had been my life for more than two years. I realised that I was no longer waiting for a phone call and smiled.

Finishing rehab at The Alfred after four months was a great experience. The encouragement from my whole medical team was a push to go and live my life, they told me I could do anything.

I had to learn to trust my new heart.

It was at about 18 months after my transplant when I travelled overseas for the first time in my life. I was the strongest, fittest and healthiest I had ever been.

Since my transplant I have achieved a number of special goals that I set for myself.

I ran five kilometres for the first time a year post-transplant. At my two year anniversary, I rode 300km in the second Tour de Transplant, a charity ride for the Heart and Lung Transplant Trust of Victoria.

During this ride that I realised I was actually amazingly and astonishingly- fit  

Without the gift from my donor, none of this would have been possible.

I have lived more in the last two years than I have in the last ten, maybe even more than in the whole of my 31 years.

I waited 865 days for a new heart- it was difficult time but it is also difficult for the families who have lost a loved one, and who have chosen to make the courageous decision to help others by donating their loved ones organs.

I will be forever grateful to them- they have transformed my life.

Register your decision on the Australian Organ Donor Register