When I was 13 years old I was diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. Restrictive Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart in which the muscles of the heart turn into a fibrous material and restrict the heart from filling with blood between heart beats. At the time of my diagnosis in 1995, the disease was extremely rare, it was reported that 90% of patients die within one year of diagnosis. I was referred to Edmonton, University of Alberta Hospitals and was put on the Heart transplant waiting list in January 1996. My pediatric cardiologist in Calgary knew the severity of this disease and knew that my need for a heart transplant was very high, therefore he recommended my parents to fight the Alberta Government to have me double listed on a transplant list in the United States, to double my chances of receiving a life saving organ. We appealed the Government and won the appeal and were given approval to double list in the United States. Prior to being given approval to double list, someone very generous had entered my name to receive a wish from the wish foundation. As a young child I was very concerned that I would not live to see my wish come true, so the Wish Foundation agreed to grant me my wish to meet country superstar Reba McIntyre at the Texoma Medical Center in Denison, Texas, while still on the waiting list for a heart. The Wish Foundation set up the wish and had arranged for my family and I to stay for one week at the ranch in Texas, we were scheduled to fly out May 25, 1996. We arranged to have a leer jet on standby at the Denison airport in case a heart was available, and I would have to come back to Canada.

May 25, 1996 our family received news that we won the fight to double list and I was able to double list in the United Sates. On May 25, 1996 my family and I were on our way to Texas. After a number of hours in the Dallas Fort Worth Air port, we finally found our luggage and located our rental car and were on our way to Denison, when suddenly my beeper went off…..
We stopped at a taco bell that we had seen on the side of the road, from the highway, to use the pay phone to call Edmonton. This was call that saved my life; they had a new heart waiting for me.
May 26, 1996 I received my life saving heart transplant.

I was told by several doctors that I would not be able to have children, because the medication that I was on was very powerful and would not allow my body to carry a pregnancy. In March 2001, I defied the odds, I was pregnant with twins. September 30, 2001 I gave birth to two healthy babies, Shaylynn Dawn Plotsky, who I named after my heart donor, and Mckayla Mona Plotsky. The twins were born two months premature but otherwise very healthy; I became the first heart transplant recipient in the world to give birth to twins, and the first heart transplant to give birth while being on the medication that I was on. After hearing of this news, my donor family had requested to meet me. I met with my donors’ mother, aunt and sister. It was at this time that I learned that my heart donor wanted to have twins very badly and that she always talked about it; it was also at this time that I learned my heart transplant birthday, May 26, is also my donor’s birthday. I celebrate this day every year. Thanks to my heart donor I’m not only alive; I am a mother as well.

In November 2003, we received terrible news that Shaylynn was going to need a new heart; she was diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy. Shaylynn was two years old at the time of diagnosis and was put on the waiting list December 2003. It scared me very much to know that there was a possibility that a heart may not come in time. January 23, 2004, we received the call telling us they had found a heart. The heart was coming from Michigan and alerted us that this could potentially be a dry run; this means that they prep you for surgery but you are not guaranteed the heart will be a suitable match until the organ gets to the hospital for more testing. We had our bags pack and we were off to Edmonton that day. Shaylynn received her new heart, but unfortunately there were some complications with the heart due to the distance that the heart had come from. We decided to insert a pacemaker in Shaylynn to help the heart beat on its own.

Shaylynn also received a wish from the wish foundation; her wish was to go to Disney Land to meet a real princess. We went to Disney Land April 2007 where she met Cinderella.

I celebrated my twelve year anniversary- and in May it will be 13 years post transplant. Shaylynn just celebrated her five year heart transplant anniversary; she is currently in grade one and doing amazing. McKayla is healthy and in Grade one as well. I am working full-time at a children’s mental health program and I am currently going to school. I am doing my degree in Health Administration.

I hope this helps people better understand the importance of signing your organ donor card, and talking to your family about organ donation.

Sign your donor card. If it wasn’t for the people who signed their donor cards, I wouldn’t be here and neither would my daughters.

Kristy