TOM GRIGGS - Heart Transplant - November, 2001
October 1974……….I’m 37……and I have 3 small children. I’m involved in a successful career as a salesman for a major insurance company. Then, heart disease strikes, and I have my first bypass. Life style changes follow, and my health improves until l989, I have the first of four heart attacks. My life now changes dramatically with numerous medical procedures to assist a damaged heart. Six stents, numerous ablations, another bypass, defibrillators, pacemakers, a multitude of medicines……but the congestive heart failure is relentless.
The EMS personnel become almost as family, I’m taken to the emergency room so many times.
Although I remain optimistic after being placed on the transplant list, a two year wait plays tricks on my mind and tests my fortitude. By December 2000, most all of my options have expired, and I’m placed on a primacor pump and patiently wait for either the end…….or a new heart. Then, November 2001, a family that is to me unknown, gives the ultimate gift of life, the heart of their loved one.
I am able to regain my quality of life and an opportunity to look forward to a future that was ceasing to exist. I have endeavored to protect their gift to the best of my ability, and in so doing, honor the life that enabled me to live.