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In This Issue:
From left, Michelle L’Heureux, Kenneth Morrell, Lauren Mahoney, Geoffrey Anderson, Linda Markel and Dr. Kanwarjit Sidhu.
This article was written by Matthew Ardito, a student at Bridgewater State University and the stepson of Geoffrey Anderson, who received a heart transplant at BWH in 2009
It’s not every day you find a person who has stared death in the face and come back to tell about it; much less a whole collection of them. But six unique individuals gathered for lunch this summer with family and friends to celebrate the gift of life. Although they come from different places and separate backgrounds, their bond is in their common struggle: heart failure and transplant surgery. Now, a year and a half after their transplants, the group revels in their happiness and success.
Five of the transplant patients met through BWH’s Advanced Heart Disease program, while they waited in the hospital for donor hearts to become available. In the spring of 2009, they each received the ultimate gift.
The first of the group to receive a transplant was Kenneth Morrell of Tewksbury. Morrell was diagnosed with ischemic cardiomyopathy (CM), a weakness of the heart muscle caused by a lack of oxygen delivery, usually a result of complications with the coronary artery. His illness eventually progressed to the point where he could barely stay awake, much less function during the day. Morrell spent 77 days on the transplant list before surgery April 5.
Next in line was Geoffrey Anderson of Sandwich. Anderson had intrinsic CM, a heart weakness from an unidentifiable external cause, and also suffered a massive heart attack in 1995. Anderson spent the longest time on the wait list out of the bunch—four years—before spending nearly two months in the hospital and receiving in April 2009.
The next two in the group received transplants within twenty-four hours of one another. First was Linda Markel of Buffalo, N.Y., who, after five months on the list, was given her heart May 7. Markel held a genetic form of CM that claimed the lives of several family members, and is currently part of an ongoing study at Brigham and Women’s for genetic heart diseases.
Cardiologist Dr. Kanwarjit S. Sidhu, MD, of Hopedale also received a heart May 7. Sidhu suffered a heart attack while running, which led to ischemic CM. He waited five months for his heart.
The last of the Brigham patients in the group to receive a heart was Lauren Mahoney of Wakefield. Mahoney had hypertrophic CM, a thickening of the heart muscles that can prevent proper functionality and blood flow. After waiting seven months and spending more than three months in the hospital, Mahoney received a new heart May 22.
The sixth person in this small but supportive group of transplant patients is Michelle L’Heureux of Tilton, N.H. Following a second occurrence of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, doctors used a more intensive chemotherapy that left L’Heureux with severe heart muscle damage. After spending less than twenty-four hours on the waitlist at another Boston hospital in 2004, L’Heureux received a successful transplant. She was later introduced to Kenneth Morrell, who worked with her sister, and was consequently introduced to the other patients as newfound friends.
Anderson was delighted to host his fellow transplant survivors and their loved ones to his home in Sandwich with his wife, Sheila. Over a freshly smoked barbeque, the group shared stories about their experiences and their post-transplant lives. “At a time when others are graduating and starting new lives,” Anderson stated, “we had a smaller gathering to celebrate good health and just being alive.”
Markel is also working on a book about her experience, titled “Potholes: Entangled Within.”
“I had a lot of adversity as a child and it made me such a stronger person when dealing with this. One of the lessons I learned is that your family doesn’t have to be biological.”
“It’s really nice to see good things happen to good people,” added Sidhu.