Zion and Zhania, heart recipients
Siblings Zion and Zhania Coleman were born with restrictive cardiomyopathy. Today, they lead happy, productive lives through the gift of life.
Martin, double lung recipient
Martin Martinez Rosa became seriously ill almost overnight—but his diagnosis took a few months. In the meantime, suffering with a recurring fever and frequent vomiting, he went back and forth to doctors at the community clinic. One doctor thought he might have—and was treating him for—tuberculosis. What Martin actually had was silicosis—a respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica dust—and the only treatment was a double-lung transplant.
Skylar, heart recipient
During a routine ultrasound in 2007, Rikki Myers, 18 weeks pregrant, received devastating news. The ultrasound revealed that their baby had a serious heart defect—hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Almost immediately after Skylar was born, his heart began to fail, so an emergency open-heart operation was performed.
Ben, heart recipient
In December 2011, 4-week-old Benjamin Hillenburg developed what his parents, Joseph and Stacy, thought was the flu. Their pediatrician was concerned about some symptoms that didn’t quite fit the flu and had Benjamin admitted to a local hospital for tests. An echocardiogram revealed that his heart was dangerously large, and within hours he was airlifted to Children’s Memorial Hospital, now Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
Sarah, heart recipient
A lot of times, when you hear the words heart failure, you think of the elderly. As a healthy 25 year old, never did I expect to hear those two words. And never did I ever expect to heart those two words while pregnant with my second.