IF THEY ONLY KNEW ABOUT THAT HEART ...Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
``Sure, I remember Edna. We've done more than 400 heart transplant heart transplant Procedure to remove a diseased heart and replace it with a healthy one from a legally dead donor. The first was performed in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard. operations, and she's the only one who received her new heart on Valentine's Day Valentine's Day: see Saint Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day Lovers' holiday celebrated on February 14, the feast day of St. Valentine, one of two 3rd-century Roman martyrs of the same name. St. .'' Dr. Lawrence Czer, medical director of the heart transplant program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a world-renowned hospital located in Los Angeles, California. History Cedars-Sinai is the result of a merger in 1961 between two major Los Angeles hospitals, Cedars of Lebanon and Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables, with Steve Broidy as . Every Valentine's Day since 1994 has been the birthday of Edna Sigmon's new life. The day she was awakened a·wak·en tr. & intr.v. a·wak·ened, a·wak·en·ing, a·wak·ens To awake; waken. See Usage Note at wake1. [Middle English awakenen, from Old English at 6 a.m. in the cardiac care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and told by an ICU ICU intensive care unit. ICU abbr. intensive care unit ICU see intensive care unit. ICU nurse this would be a Valentine's Day she would never forget. There would be no breakfast this morning. She was going right into surgery. Dr. Alfredo Trento, chief of the cardiac surgery Cardiac surgery is surgery on the heart and/or great vessels performed by a cardiac surgeon. Frequently, it is done to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, coronary artery bypass grafting), correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease department, and Dr. Lawrence Czer were waiting. They had a new heart to replace the diseased dis·eased adj. 1. Affected with disease. 2. Unsound or disordered. , enlarged one that had Edna at death's door. Jay, her husband, was in the hallway with Tim, her son, and his wife, Dena. ``Happy Valentine's Day, honey,'' Jay said, taking the four-carat diamond heart from his wife's hand - a heart he had bought her for Valentine's Day years earlier. It had never left her neck until now. A diamond heart being replaced by a real one. ``Happy Valentine's Day, mom,'' Tim and Dena said, leaning down to give her a kiss. ``We'll see you in a couple of hours.'' Edna looked up at her family and smiled with tears in her eyes. Her ICU nurse was right. This would be a Valentine's Day she would never forget. ``Before they put me under, I jokingly told the doctors I hoped it wasn't a 50-year-old heart they were giving me because I already had one of those,'' said Edna, now 68. She doesn't remember their answer. She was under by the time she counted to five. It was a 19-year-old heart. A young Hispanic man had been on life support systems in an ICU room not far from Edna's, and the doctors wanted Edna waiting nearby, just in case the boy's parents made the agonizing decision not to keep their son alive artificially. Because of confidentiality restrictions, Edna would know none of this for months after she left the hospital and returned to her Northridge home with this incredible Valentine's gift she had received. ``It was right around Easter when the hospital's heart transplant coordinator told me I could write to the donor's family,'' Edna said. ``I thanked his mother for her sacrifice, and told her I knew what an agonizing decision her family had to make. ``I have three sons. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if I could have done what they did. I told her that thanks to your gracious donation, I'll be able to see my grandchildren GRANDCHILDREN, domestic relations. The children of one's children. Sometimes these may claim bequests given in a will to children, though in general they can make no such claim. 6 Co. 16. grow up. ``Her son's heart will be 30 this Valentine's Day, and I wish she could know it's still beating strong.'' Edna never heard back from the donor's family. That's not unusual, says Linda Piponniau, a transplant coordinator at the hospital. Often the decision to donate organs is so emotionally charged people don't want to look back. It just hurts too much. But it would be wonderful if they could know their son's heart is bringing a lot of comfort to families going through the same agonizing decision today they went through 11 years ago. ``Edna is very gracious in volunteering her time to come in and talk to other heart transplant patients and donor families to make them feel better about the process,'' Piponniau said. Of the more than 400 open heart surgeries that have been done at Cedars-Sinai since 1988, Edna Sigmon's Valentine's Day heart may be the most memorable, says Dr. Czer. ``Dr. Trento and I were getting ready for surgery, saying this was definitely one for the books,'' he said Friday. ``How appropriate, giving someone a new heart on Valentine's Day.'' Her life has been a roller coaster What a bad CD-R disc is often called. See CD-R and underrun. ride since that Valentine's Day 11 years ago, Edna says. The low part was when her beloved husband, Jay, died of a heart attack only five months after she received her new heart. ``It was devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. ,'' she says. ``My old heart wouldn't have been able to take that shock.'' The high part is right now. Her Valentine's Day heart not only serves as an inspiration to donor families and heart patients at Cedars-Sinai, but also at Curves in Chatsworth, a women's gym where she now works as a fitness instructor fitness instructor fit n → Fitnesstrainer(in) m(f) . Whenever someone new comes in who doesn't think she can do it - get healthy and in shape because she is too old or sickly - Edna sits her down and tells her all about the 30-year-old heart ticking inside her 68-year-old body. Her dream is that someday she'll be able to say thank you - face to face - to the family who gave her that Valentine's gift 11 years ago. Let them know she's so grateful for the chance to watch her grandchildren grow up. Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Edna ``Niki'' Sigmon helps Diane Eisman with a lateral pull exercise at Curves, 11 years after the Valentine's Day Edna got her new heart. |
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