MIAMI (CBS) – April is National Donate Life Month, reminding us of the large want for organ donation.
Last yr, greater than 41,000 transplants had been carried out, giving new life to sufferers, in keeping with the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. That contains one exceptional lady who’s now again within the sport.
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Jennifer Mayadas-Dering is {an electrical} engineer, a spouse, a mother, and a world-class skilled racquetball participant. She has all the time had the guts of a champion. But final yr, she discovered she wanted a brand new coronary heart.
“How could this happen to me? I felt I was playing the role in somebody else’s story,” she mentioned.
Outside, she seemed wholesome, however she felt one thing was unsuitable. Doctors recognized her with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, a dangerously weak coronary heart muscle.
“A lot of her symptoms were hard to kind of tease out because she was otherwise in good shape. But, you know, when I saw her, I looked at her, examined her, I knew that things were not good,” mentioned Dr. Alan Glass of the Department of Cardiology at Westchester Medical Center.
“The day they told me I needed a heart transplant was shocking. But at that point, it was about surviving,” Jennifer mentioned.
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She had a three-week wait within the hospital. Then in April 2021, obtained her new coronary heart. Dr. Masashi Kai carried out the five-hour process at Westchester Medical Center in New York.
“It’s not just life-saving, also it can change the quality of life like Jennifer,” mentioned Dr. Kai.
Jennifer says she couldn’t wait to get again on the court docket, saying, “I was champing at the bit.” Just three months after surgical procedure, she picked up her racket. And a yr later, she’s displaying no mercy.
She’s crushed a rejection scare and a COVID-19 an infection and is aware of she has this second probability to play, to stay, due to a donor.
“I wake up every day thinking about her, thinking about her family and who she was,” Jennifer mentioned.
Back within the sport, with all her coronary heart and soul.
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Jennifer’s mom died ready for an organ transplant. More than 100,000 persons are ready for lifesaving organ transplants. If you wish to register to be a donor, go to registerme.org.