The Homan Family Story
In their lifetime, my children have seen their "Papa", their aunt, one great uncle by marriage, and one classmate's grandpa receive donated organs. For my oldest child, it's "normal" to expect that if something is wrong, a doctor can fix it- even if that means undergoing surgery to completely replace what is broken.
When I was 14, I had a father with a bad heart - a heart that would need replacing after two open heart surgeries, carotid surgery, multiple stents, a pacemaker/defibrillator, the replacement of the pacemaker/defibrillator, and medicines too numerous to count. I spent much of my life watching medicine keep up with his failing heart.
When my Dad was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, we knew the end was coming. His only option was a heart transplant, and at that time, it wasn't an option. So my parents traveled, spent time with friends, and watched their family continue to grow. We got used to working around his illness.
When his heart finally failed it came as something of a surprise. But medicine had again kept up with him. This time he was sick enough to qualify for a transplant. And the waiting began. Fortunately, from the time my Dad was placed on the transplant list, he only waited a month.
My Dad received his heart on April 20, 2006. For a normal family, the thought of this surgery would be scary, for ours, it was another surgery—one that would take care of all the problems in one fell swoop. While we waited for him to wake from the surgery, we thought about the family of the person who had made this happen. My family spent a lifetime waiting for the end to come—and we'd celebrated each vacation and holiday as if it might be the last. The donor family couldn't know that they had celebrated their last Christmas and Easter with their loved one. Our happiness was their misery, a fact that wasn't lost on us, or our friends and extended family. We prayed that this family would find comfort and we continue to think about this family today.
Once my father received his new heart, we saw two more patients on the cardiac floor with heart transplants—one, a teenager, who started walking the floor within the first day or two after surgery, mask firmly in place; the other a 38 year-old father of three who was able to leave the hospital and return to his life 10 days after surgery. Unfortunately, we were able to see these miracles because we were still at the hospital. While the transplant was a success, it seemed the rest of his body needed a break. We weren't quite at the finish line in this race yet.
Written by Pam Homan
The story of Pam's father continues. Check back soon for the conclusion or join our email list to receive our latest newsletters.