Brave hearts: Faces of heart transplant

By Jack KearseJuly 24, 2014

Marana and Owen Burr, transplant 2011: "Two months after Owen was born, he had to have a heart transplant. The whole day was a blur, and I was a mess. But he did great."

David Williams, 19, musician, transplant 1994: "I was three weeks old, so I don't really remember. I don't even pretend to understand how it works when they plug everything else back in, I'm just glad it does."

Nicole Tyler, 40, special education teacher, transplant 2012: "My students all have theories about how my transplant happened, like the one who asked if the doctors took my heart out through my throat."

Twins Jack and Joe Stott, 68, transplant 1998 and 1996: "At the beginning of the Transplant Games each year, all of us turn and applaud the donor famlies in the stands, because without them the stadium would be empty."

Beverly Williamson, 79, ballet teacher, transplant 1996: "My 16-year-old donor's mother and I speak to groups of students, it's an incredible relationship we have. By being a donor, Clayton helped 43 people, including me."

Ketan Thanki, 45, transplant 2010: "Even though it is a simple thing, the most significant difference now is I am able to carry our daughter up the stairs when she falls asleep to put her to bed."

Your heart weighs about 10 ounces and is the epicenter of your body. A muscle shaped like a pear and protected by a cage of ribs, it pumps more than a gallon of blood through your circulatory system every minute. Electric signals make your heart contract and relax, contract and relax, 60 to 100 times a minute. Its beat responds to your level of exertion and your emotions — faster with fear, slower with contentment. An average lifetime measured in heartbeats: 2.5 billion. The people in this slide show are well aware of the importance of this muscle. Through illness or genetics, their hearts gave out, and through a generosity beyond imagining, they were given another chance, through heart transplant at Emory. As you will see, they are making every beat count.

For the complete photo essay, see the online extra in Emory Medicine magazine.

Photos by Jack Kearse, Emory University

Tags

Recent News