Covenant News

Thanksgiving Devotional: "I Just Got a New Heart"

CHICAGO, IL (November 24, 2003) - About 250 church newsletters per month are sent to Covenant Communications. Some of this month's devotional articles are particularly poignant during Thanksgiving week. This devotional was taken (and edited with permission) from a September 21 worship service testimony given by Don Michael, a layperson at Chicago's Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church.

Hi, I'm Don Michael and I've got great news! I just got a new heart. Praise the Lord!!!

Back in April 1986, I suffered my first heart attack. The doctors treated me with some new clot-busting drugs and angioplasty. I ended up losing about 18 percent of my heart; but the doctors saved my life. Since then I have had a stroke and two more heart attacks, one of them while in the recovery room after major back surgery. I have had three angioplasty procedures, a quadruple by-pass and a triple by-pass.

After the triple by-pass procedure, in January 1998, it was decided that implanting a defibrillator-pacemaker would be a prudent course of action. These procedures, along with a rigorous course of cardiac rehabilitation exercises during the last five years, combined to prolong my life for 17 years. Praise the Lord!

In November 2001, I entered Northwestern Memorial Hospital after suffering uncontrollable angina the night before. My cardiologist doctor told us that my only real hope was to get a heart transplant. He warned us that the recovery was a long arduous procedure, the operation itself was risky, and the moral issues of taking advantage of someone else's loss of life would have to be resolved in our minds, to say nothing of the chance of organ rejection. After talking with my wife, Nona, and our family, we decided to go pursue the heart transplant.

By April 2002, after what seemed to be 1,000 different tests, I was approved to be on the heart transplant list (at University of Chicago Hospital). Praise God, my name did not come up in 2002, however, because that was the year that my wife became ill. In January, Nona developed a blood clot in her heart. Open-heart surgery followed to remove the rest of the clot and a filter was placed in her abdomen to prevent future blood clots from reaching the heart.

Despite the filter, a second series of blood clots hit Nona's lungs in August. And all told Nona had four hospitals stays in 2002, which totaled to more than 7 weeks in Swedish Covenant Hospital. Doctors never were able to determine exactly what caused the blood clots; although medication changes were made and no further clots have developed (she uses oxygen regularly, however).

In January 2003, I was getting ready for the annual meeting at church. While going over the proposed budget one more time, my heart went into atricular ventriculation. My defibrillator delivered a jolt, somewhat akin to being hit in the chest with a hammer, shocking my heart back into normal rhythm and saving my life. Although the pacemaker had operated many times, this was the first time that the defibrillator had operated in the 5 years that I had it. Instead of attending the annual meeting I spent the time in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Within a week, I was moved up to level 2 on the transplant list.

On May 12, 2003, my wife had just gone up to bed and I was preparing to go to bed also when the phone rang. I thought to myself, "what inconsiderate telemarketer is calling at 10:35 at night?"

When I answered the phone, I heard a cheerful voice say, "Mr. Michael, we have a heart for you!" Coming up with the most intelligent thing I could think of, I said, "Huh?"

"Mr. Michael," the voice repeated, "This is the University of Chicago Hospital and we have a heart available for you."

Needless to say, we were off to the races. We waited until the heart could be harvested and flown in by the Medicopter. Finally, on May 13, the transplant took place, with four teams of surgeons working on the procedure. I'd like to say I was an ideal patient - but, I apparently removed the breathing tube myself while still under general anesthetic in the transplant intensive care unit. Because of this, the next time Nona and my boys saw me in the intensive care unit; my hands and feet were tied to the bed railings.

Recovery was not without problems. Doctors had to open my chest a second time, a week after the first operation to install an elaborate vacuum assisted drainage system to keep my chest clear of fluid build-up. This time the doctors left the chest open for a week before closing it up. Since this was the fourth time my chest had been opened, it was necessary to install four titanium plates on my sternum when closing me up. Afterwards I was told that I could never play football again. (So the Chicago Bears' secret weapon has been taken out of commission.)

Everyone wants to know whether decisions they make are correct. I'm no different, so I asked the heart transplant doctor if my heart was as bad as he thought it was. The doctor said, "Don, when we took your old heart out, it came out in chunks."

Now I know that I've been rambling on and on - but I just wanted to point out the miracle of timing that God brought in this whole process:

• First, there is the miracle that the doctors have gained the knowledge and developed the skills and tools necessary to perform heart transplants. I'm sure that God's hand is behind this development.
• Next, is the miracle of having selected excellent doctors and hospitals. Praise God in helping us make these choices!
• There is the miracle of breezing past all the screening tests and qualifying for the transplant.
• There is the miracle of God's timing in this whole process. He gave me time when my wife needed me in the year 2002. He gave me time to get some of my affairs in order. He kept me from injury while my heart was in a vulnerable condition.
• And, finally, God made sure that I received a new heart before it was too late.

As to the future, I'm still recovering strength and stamina. As a result of the strong anti-rejection medication that I'm taking, I have become diabetic and require a steady regimen of insulin shots. I still am restricted in what I'm allowed to do. But a year from now I should be able to help out with the maintenance of Ravenswood. All your prayers for me were answered. Now if we could all pray for, and work in, our Ravenswood mission field - think of the church we could become!

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