1988 Heart & Lung Transplant - Part 4

When Renee and I decided to get me on the transplant list the decision wasn’t without some great concerns and prayer. On the obvious side I was sick and getting sicker by the day but the flip side was how huge the risk of survival was. Of course it didn’t help when people heard we were considering the transplant and they shared how shocking the whole idea was and how scary it sounded!

The open door to the surgery came, we grabbed it and after a seemingly impossible road of my deterioration from cystic fibrosis the call came! I was in hospital, death sucking me down, drowning me in lungs filled with mucous, a life saving chance for me to live…. someone had died to give me this chance.

This is a huge and extremely sad moment in life for anyone but un fathomable for the loved ones family! A parents worse nightmare, your child dying before you do! Thinking of this causes anyone to examine the purpose of life and what we are about…..

As fast as the call came in from UNOS, Renee and I were over at Stanford Hospital in wait for the organs to arrive and then and only then we would get confirmation this was really going to happen, a very scary time all this waiting.

During the days of getting the work up for transplantation, measurements, blood work & more blood work, tests upon tests, we were told it was a 50/50 chance of survival. While we were waiting this early morning they said it was now a 60/40. 40 % chance of getting off the surgery table alive!

This all became so real as Renee and I were looking at each other, searching together if we have made the right decision and knowing If and when they rolled me through those surgery room doors she would have me back after the surgery, maybe! We were so into the moment, I was now laying on a gurney feeling like warmed over death while Renee was sitting next to me praying. Most all of out family members were out in the waiting room along with the persons family that was in line for my heart making this Stanford Hospitals first domino heart transplant.

Ya, this domino plan came to us while waiting, a doctor came in and asked if I would be interested in donating my heart to another person whom also was at deaths door. Both Renee and I thought exactly the same the same thing, a no brainer, of course !

The Rasmussen’s pre-transplant 1986