BlueDevil
02-06-2006, 08:37 AM
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/171077.html
Jhonna Loftis knew the power of donated organs before she got one. The 21-year-old's relatives have battled a debilitating disease for generations, and she is the third in her family to have a transplant.
Robert Franklin, Star Tribune
Last update: February 04, 2006 – 11:07 PM
Even before a new heart began beating in her chest, 21-year-old Jhonna Loftis knew the benefits of a transplant and how it could help restore her health and enhance her life.
That's because Loftis is the third member of her extended family to have a heart transplant. She is one of eight among her grandfather's 18 grandchildren, children and siblings to have inherited the same debilitating disease, familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Those eight included her father, who died unexpectedly at age 19 before she was born and two months short of his planned wedding, and her late grandfather, who lived for 18 years with a transplant. It also includes her great-aunt, Sue Huff of Baxter, Minn., the state's longest-living heart transplant recipient -- 27 years.
"I watched my family go through it," Loftis said last week at the Minneapolis apartment she shares with her husband, Luke. "It's just how it is."
She was diagnosed before age 5, had to drop gym classes by sixth grade and had periodic episodes that sent her to a hospital. More recently, she sometimes slept 16 hours a day, had a defibrillator implanted and, to make it up stairs, got piggyback rides from her husband.
"Her quality of life sucked," said her mother, Dawn Hines of Nisswa, Minn.
So when it was Loftis' turn for a transplant, sooner than she expected, "I was really excited," she said. And only a bit scared.
Luke added, "I was probably more freaked out than she was."
Both are college students. When she got her new heart on Nov. 29, "she was still going to school. She was most worried about that, actually," said Dr. Andrew Boyle, her cardiologist. "I said. 'We'll deal with that later.' "
Life after the transplant
Loftis has been dealing well with the transplant. The surgery was "not as painful as I thought," she said. She spent a week in the hospital and has had no medical problems. She couldn't walk on a treadmill for more than 2˝ minutes before but now, she said, "I can go and go and don't even feel it."
She's in therapy and classes three times a week, has biopsies every other week and for now takes about a dozen medications to fight rejection as well as for blood pressure, ulcers, diabetes and other ailments. (If she had to pay for them without insurance, they would cost about $1,500 for 10 days' worth, she discovered during a brief lapse in her medical coverage).
Boyle said Loftis is young for a cardiomyopathy transplant, but "she was slowly deteriorating and she knew it." The disease, which is said to affect one in every 500 people, involves a scarring and thickening of the heart. That leads to shortness of breath and the potential for heart failure. It kept Loftis from getting enough blood into her heart, Boyle explained.
The surgery was done at University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, which beginning in 1978 has done more than 600 heart transplants, including those for her grandfather Ken Wasnie and Huff.
Loftis' donor was young, she was told, and at some point she'll be able to write to see if the donor's family wants to make contact (Huff became friends with the mother of her donor, a 16-year-old boy)
Loftis was willing to tell her story partly to encourage organ donations. Nationally, surgeons do fewer than 2,500 heart transplants a year, but the waiting list totals more than 3,000, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
She wants to teach doctors
Loftis is studying noninvasive cardiology technology at North Hennepin Community College and hopes to work for a medical products company, teaching doctors about new technologies. Luke is studying animation at the Art Institutes International Minnesota.
They've been a couple for more than five years, going back to their days at Brainerd High School. They got married June 17 at the National Guard Armory in Brainerd.
The event was pretty informal. "They should have been flower children, they're both so laid back," her mother said. A song played at the wedding was Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman," she said. "How many people have that?"
And, Hines added of Luke's devotion to Loftis despite her heart problems, "How many young men at age 16 would stick around for that kind of stuff?"
Luke hasn't just stuck around, Loftis said. "He's had to take care of me since we've been together."
But Luke has been on crutches lately with a compound ankle fracture he suffered when he slipped while throwing a snowball at a friend. With his wife's renewed vigor, he said, "now she's takes care of me for a while."
Robert Franklin • 612-673-4543
Jhonna Loftis knew the power of donated organs before she got one. The 21-year-old's relatives have battled a debilitating disease for generations, and she is the third in her family to have a transplant.
Robert Franklin, Star Tribune
Last update: February 04, 2006 – 11:07 PM
Even before a new heart began beating in her chest, 21-year-old Jhonna Loftis knew the benefits of a transplant and how it could help restore her health and enhance her life.
That's because Loftis is the third member of her extended family to have a heart transplant. She is one of eight among her grandfather's 18 grandchildren, children and siblings to have inherited the same debilitating disease, familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Those eight included her father, who died unexpectedly at age 19 before she was born and two months short of his planned wedding, and her late grandfather, who lived for 18 years with a transplant. It also includes her great-aunt, Sue Huff of Baxter, Minn., the state's longest-living heart transplant recipient -- 27 years.
"I watched my family go through it," Loftis said last week at the Minneapolis apartment she shares with her husband, Luke. "It's just how it is."
She was diagnosed before age 5, had to drop gym classes by sixth grade and had periodic episodes that sent her to a hospital. More recently, she sometimes slept 16 hours a day, had a defibrillator implanted and, to make it up stairs, got piggyback rides from her husband.
"Her quality of life sucked," said her mother, Dawn Hines of Nisswa, Minn.
So when it was Loftis' turn for a transplant, sooner than she expected, "I was really excited," she said. And only a bit scared.
Luke added, "I was probably more freaked out than she was."
Both are college students. When she got her new heart on Nov. 29, "she was still going to school. She was most worried about that, actually," said Dr. Andrew Boyle, her cardiologist. "I said. 'We'll deal with that later.' "
Life after the transplant
Loftis has been dealing well with the transplant. The surgery was "not as painful as I thought," she said. She spent a week in the hospital and has had no medical problems. She couldn't walk on a treadmill for more than 2˝ minutes before but now, she said, "I can go and go and don't even feel it."
She's in therapy and classes three times a week, has biopsies every other week and for now takes about a dozen medications to fight rejection as well as for blood pressure, ulcers, diabetes and other ailments. (If she had to pay for them without insurance, they would cost about $1,500 for 10 days' worth, she discovered during a brief lapse in her medical coverage).
Boyle said Loftis is young for a cardiomyopathy transplant, but "she was slowly deteriorating and she knew it." The disease, which is said to affect one in every 500 people, involves a scarring and thickening of the heart. That leads to shortness of breath and the potential for heart failure. It kept Loftis from getting enough blood into her heart, Boyle explained.
The surgery was done at University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, which beginning in 1978 has done more than 600 heart transplants, including those for her grandfather Ken Wasnie and Huff.
Loftis' donor was young, she was told, and at some point she'll be able to write to see if the donor's family wants to make contact (Huff became friends with the mother of her donor, a 16-year-old boy)
Loftis was willing to tell her story partly to encourage organ donations. Nationally, surgeons do fewer than 2,500 heart transplants a year, but the waiting list totals more than 3,000, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
She wants to teach doctors
Loftis is studying noninvasive cardiology technology at North Hennepin Community College and hopes to work for a medical products company, teaching doctors about new technologies. Luke is studying animation at the Art Institutes International Minnesota.
They've been a couple for more than five years, going back to their days at Brainerd High School. They got married June 17 at the National Guard Armory in Brainerd.
The event was pretty informal. "They should have been flower children, they're both so laid back," her mother said. A song played at the wedding was Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman," she said. "How many people have that?"
And, Hines added of Luke's devotion to Loftis despite her heart problems, "How many young men at age 16 would stick around for that kind of stuff?"
Luke hasn't just stuck around, Loftis said. "He's had to take care of me since we've been together."
But Luke has been on crutches lately with a compound ankle fracture he suffered when he slipped while throwing a snowball at a friend. With his wife's renewed vigor, he said, "now she's takes care of me for a while."
Robert Franklin • 612-673-4543