Thank you American Heart

Contributed By Mae

Over 20 years ago, the news that my then 29-year-old brother would need a heart transplant was devastating to me.  In essence, that news meant he was dying and that someone would have to die, so that he could live.  I was 24 at the time and it was unbeknownst to me that 15 years later, I would find myself in that very same situation.  My name is Mae Boehm one of two siblings, who have been helped through the education and research from the American Heart Association.

At the age of 25, I began to have issues with my own health as I became short of breath upon very little exertion.  During the time I was undergoing medical testing, I became pregnant.  The doctors were reluctant for me to continue my pregnancy because they were not certain of a diagnosis.  Refusing to terminate my pregnancy, it was the advice of my physician that I give birth by cesarean.  Within less than 24 hours after delivery, I experienced my first episode of congestive heart failure.  Shortly afterwards additional tests would reveal a leak in the mitral valve of my heart and surgery was recommended to repair the valve.

The surgery in 1989 although successful, was a temporary fix. However, I was able to go on and have a second child.  My health appeared to be stable until 1998, at which time, once again, my heart began to weaken, and the valve began to leak.  Further tests had proven that I had that same potentially fatal congenital disease as my brother.  A disease that normally kills in the first year of life as it had done to my parents third born in 1951.

 At the age of 36, I went for my second surgery.  This time the doctors would replace my valve, and attempt to cut away some of the diseased tissue that was growing in my heart.  Unfortunately, this partially successful attempt left me with a hole in my heart and the need for a pacemaker.  It was then we learned, as fate would have it, that I would eventually be facing that very same situation that terrified me 10 years before.

 Naturally, I was scared but as I looked to my brother 10 years post transplant, he became my mentor.  After his transplant, he was completely normal, he ran, swam, went back to work as a nurse, and raised his children.  Yet, in my heart, it did not change the feeling that someone had to die, so that I could live.  Emotionally, it becomes a lot to handle.  However, the educated mind knows that someone would not die so that I could live.  The fact remains, someone would die, regardless.  It would simply take the selfless act of another human being and their desire to want the spirit of a loved one to live on to help me survive.

 After struggling between tests and medications, in April of 2002 I was placed on the organ donor list for a heart.  I waited at home, for 8-1/2 months until that selfless act came to fruition on December 18, 2002.  On that day a family struggling with grief over the loss of their 12-year-old son, offered to give others a chance, and on December 19th, I was given the gift of life... a brand new heart. 

 My brother celebrated 19 years this year, and I will be celebrating 5.  Through these miraculously selfless acts, we were both given a second chance at life.  A chance that was not available in 1951 when my brother passed away at a year old.  However education for physicians, and for ourselves has become so readily available and has grown so much thanks to AHA.

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