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Transplant Patient Stories

  • Amy on her wedding day and her dad Chuck

    Gift from Daughter to Dad: a Liver Donation

    Chuck Lewensten ran a successful business, hunted in Africa and played tennis with his fiancé, Jill. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis changed all that. By the summer of 2010, the disease had ravaged Lewensten's liver, leaving him homebound and dependent on his family ...

  • Beki Rose and family

    Rare heart-liver transplant gives South Carolina woman a second chance at life

    Beki Rose and her husband, Tom, had met with half a dozen doctors, and they all said the same thing. "They told me to go home and get my things in order," says Beki, a 51-year-old mother of three with ...

  • Dan Carey

    Surprise amyloidosis diagnosis leads to combined heart-liver transplant

    At the end of a routine physical in 2006, Dan Carey's doctor asked if there was anything else he wanted to discuss. Dan exercised regularly and felt good. Except for one thing. "I get out of breath when I walk ...

  • Mayo Clinic patient Shirley Thompson, recipient of a double lung transplant

    An Unexpected Miracle from Down the Hallway

    Sometimes miracles happen when you least expect them. No one believes that more than Fleming Island, Florida resident Shirley Thompson, whose tale of how she received two new lungs while in a medically induced coma at Mayo Clinic hospital in ...

  • Ann and Jerry Beasley

    Ann Beasley

    Ann Beasley was only too willing to donate one of her kidneys to her husband, but their blood types were incompatible. A procedure at Mayo Clinic called ABO incompatible kidney transplants made her gift possible.

  • John Greller with his wife and son

    John Greller

    John Greller was a swimming hero at the National Kidney Foundation Transplant Games. He gave his medals to his real heroes — his wife, his (donor) son, and the Mayo transplant team.

  • Bruce Schwartau

    Bruce Schwartau

    A liver transplant for primary sclerosing cholangitis brought new strength to Bruce Schwartau. "It's a joy to be able to play a full 18 holes of golf. I know what it's like to be weak, so I value my strength."

  • Wain McFarlane

    Wain McFarlane

    They're playing our song: A musician joins forces with his Mayo team to battle cancer and promote organ donation.

  • Tara Kline

    Tara Kline

    At Mayo Clinic, a transplant patient finds caregivers who truly care.

  • Dan Olson

    Dan Olson

    Every day, with every step: Transplant patient Dan Olson honors his heart donor with his life.

  • Marshall Curtis

    Marshall Curtis

    Marshall Curtis needed a liver transplant. Obesity complicated his case. At Mayo Clinic, a relatively new procedure combining transplant and bariatric surgery gave him a second chance.

  • Wachira Loth

    Wachira Loth

    After years of living with hepatitis B, Wachira Loth was afraid to look in the mirror. A liver transplant at Mayo Clinic changed that.

  • JoAnn Forster

    JoAnn Forster

    By the time JoAnn Forster realized she'd had a heart attack, the damage was done. Then medical technology helped her bridge the gap to a new heart.

  • Bill Pearse

    Bill Pearse

    Kidney cancer threatened Bill Pearse's life; a gift from his son gave it back.

  • Doug Yaus

    Doug Yaus

    Doug Yaus says you have to be involved in your care — and never give up hope — even when your options seem to have come to an end.

  • Ardell Lien

    Ardell Lien

    Ardell Lien sailed around the world powered by a heart and kidney transplanted at Mayo Clinic.

  • Hasan Hosein

    Hasan Hosein

    When Noor Hosein learned that a kidney disorder threatened his son's life, he traveled from Trinidad to Mayo Clinic for a lifesaving transplant.

  • Mauricio Perez Olegaray and his wife

    Mauricio Perez-Olegaray

    Diagnosed with cirrhosis in Mexico, Mauricio Perez-Olegaray came to Mayo Clinic and stayed for a lifesaving liver transplant.

  • Jorge Bacardi

    Jorge Bacardi

    Double-lung transplant patient Jorge Bacardi honors his donor and touches the lives of countless transplant patients by helping to establish Gabriel House of Care.

  • Mia Welch

    Mia Welch

    A diagnosis of congestive heart failure pulled Mia Welch off stage. After a heart transplant at Mayo Clinic, she's looking forward to dancing again.

  • Heidi Ash

    Mayo Clinic's 185th Heart Transplant Patient and her "Chocolat"

    I wish I knew more ways to say, "Thank you". I was given not just a second chance at life, but also a life with possibilities never imagined. Being born with congenital heart defects, my first open-heart surgery was performed ...

  • Cindy

    Saving Lives by Recruiting Marrow Donors

    Carolyn "Ceci" Christenson, age 18, of Gilbert, Ariz., has already survived a rare, life-threatening blood disorder and become a high-powered recruiter for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). Her experience inspires Christenson to speak out for patients whose hope for ...

  • Kimmy Lockwood

    Doubly Rewarding: Weight Loss and Liver Transplant for Rare Disorder

    In 2007, Kimmy Lockwood decided to be screened for weight-loss surgery to address a longtime weight problem. Little did she know that decision would be lifesaving and eventually lead to a liver transplant at Mayo Clinic. Tests indicated Lockwood had ...

  • David

    My Stem Cells

    During the summer of 2011, my husband, David, underwent a series of tests which revealed extremely high levels of a certain protein in his blood.  As a result, we were referred to the Hematology Department at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, ...

  • Kirk Watson and his wife

    Rare treatment for rare disease: Triple transplant

    On June 14, 2011, after a 107-day wait in the hospital at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Kirk Watson, 44, received the news he'd been waiting for — a heart, liver and kidney were available for him. He would be ...

  • Jill Morton playing tennis

    Jill Morton: Going for the Gold

    Eight years ago, Jill Morton was dying. A family history of kidney disease had finally caught up with her. Her kidneys were failing, and her body was shutting down. "I was really afraid," she says. For two long years, Morton, ...

  • Kongphaly Aphayasane

    Transplant patient awarded United States citizenship at Mayo Clinic in Florida

    A momentous occasion occurred recently at Mayo Clinic in Florida when a bone marrow transplant patient, Kongphaly Aphayasane, was awarded United States citizenship in her hospital room. Aphayasane, a native from Laos, has been working diligently to achieve this significant ...

  • Melissa Blevins and Risa Simon

    New friendship cemented with kidney donation

    Melissa Blevins, administrator for the Transplant Center and Living Donor Programs at Mayo Clinic's campus in Arizona, knew that one day she'd be an organ donor. Her epiphany occurred 15 years ago. She was working as nurse transplant coordinator and, ...

  • Nichole and Isaac Ruston and kids Max and Mia

    A Marathon of Another Kind: Kidney Dialysis for 13 Months

    It was the summer of 2008, and Nichole Rushton was primed and ready to run 26.2 miles – a marathon – something she had accomplished with relative ease twice before. At age 28, she well could have invented the concept of ...

  • Amy and Kirti

    Kidney Donor Found Via Social Media

    Most people think of Facebook and Twitter as fun, engaging social media sites, used to make friends and connect with those sharing common interests. Kirti D. sheds a new light on the power of social media as she tells us an ...

  • Adam and Saori Janusz

    New Heart instead of a Honeymoon

    Instead of honeymooning in Ireland, Adam Janusz and his wife, Saori, took a journey of the heart. Janusz, then 32, was diagnosed with a rare heart ailment, requiring ventricular assist devices (VAD) to keep his heart pumping. Eventually, he'd need ...

  • Waiting... for a second chance at life

    While I'm not a musician – or for that fact, musically inclined in any capacity – I now share something in common with Gregg Allman, the rock and roll legend: A second chance at life thanks to an organ donation.

  • Mayo Transplant Patient a Finalist on American Idol

    He made it! Scott MacIntyre, singer/songwriter/pianist from Scottsdale, Ariz., that is. Scott, 23, a contestant on the current season of American Idol, made the list of the 10 finalists on last night's program (Wednesday, March 18) when "America" voted him ...

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