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IOWA'S FIRST HEART TRANSPLANT PATIENT CELEBRATES A 20-YEAR MILESTONE
AND REMINDS POTENTIAL ORGAN DONORS TO LET THEIR WISHES BE KNOWN
Life's trials have taught Emerson Martin a thing or two about attitude and determination.
"Live each day!" he says with the conviction of a man who feels lucky to be alive.
Indeed, the 45-year-old Martin has every reason to appreciate each passing breath.
Twenty years ago, his heart was nearly as big as a football, he couldn't walk 20 feet without feeling exhausted, and doctors had shocked his heart with a defibrillator at least a dozen times. Martin was about to become Iowa's first heart transplant patient.
At the time, the transplant team at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics gave him a 50 percent chance of surviving the first year. Long-term survival was not mentioned.
Yet here he is today, feeling good despite "a few bumps in the road."
Barb Rakel, an advanced practice nurse who was on Martin's transplant team, remembers two key aspects of his survival: motivation and a sense of humor.
"He was a great patient," she says. "He did everything he was supposed to do."
Martin feels fortunate. "The donor had let his wife know that, should he ever die, he would want to be an organ donor. That was a critical step in the process."
Hopefully, Martin says, other people who want to be organ donors will do the same and let their spouses and family members know their wishes.
"A generous donor gave me a whole new life," he says. "I'm forever grateful."
In 2003, doctors performed 2,057 heart transplants nationwide. The one-year survival rate was 86.9 percent.
Source: American Heart Association
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