The Gift That Keeps On Ticking

Brother John Tolbert received a heart transplant in February and is recovering. He hope to return to the pulpit soon at his church, Pine Grove Baptist Church. – Photo by David Howell

    Last July, John Tolbert learned that a heart is one of them. Instead Tolbert, a Baptist minister, had his faith – the same faith he taught from the pulpit for years – put to the test.

    After he suffered a major heart attack last July, his doctors informed him that he would need a heart transplant in order to sustain his life. In the 13 years since Tolbert had first been diagnosed with heart disease, doctors had placed a stent in every artery leading to his heart . The diagnosis wasn’t a surprise. His father had died young after suffering with heart problems.

    “It runs in our family,”  said Tolbert, now 53.

    In the United States there is only one way to receive an organ transplant, a patient  must be added to the National Waiting List maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

    A lengthy procedure, Tolbert first needed a referral from his cardiologist, Dr. Steve Purdon. The July heart attack triggered this first step, and Tolbert was placed in contact with his transplant hospital, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis.

    Next he underwent exhaustive testing to see if he could become a donor candidate.

    “There is certain criteria they look for, I went through every test imaginable,” Tolbert explains. Finally in November he was added to the list as a status two patient.

    “That means I remain at home until they find a heart,” Tolbert said. At this point, the average waiting time is a year to a year and a half.

    He made it through Christmas, explaining that everything was fine.

    His condition worsened in January after he started coughing.

    “I got my wife to carry me to the hospital in Oxford,” Tolbert recalls.

    His condition took a turn for the worse as doctors diagnosed he was suffering with flash pulmonary edema, causing his lungs to rapidly fill with fluid.

    “Dr. Jason Waller kept me alive,” Tolbert said. He remained in intensive care for days.

    “I was out most of that time, and at one point Dr. Purdon called my family in. He thought I wasn’t going to make it.”

    As Tolbert fought for his life, he was changed from status two to status one on the transplant list. He would remain in the hospital until he received a heart or…

    “I was flown to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis,” Tolbert said.

    His health improved as he lay in the hospital and the long-anticipated news came on Feb. 3.

    “I started noticing smiles,” Tolbert said of his medical team. “The transplant coordinator said, ‘John we have your heart.’”

    “This was an exciting time” he adds. Especially for his family – wife, Betty, and three kids; Lauren, age 24, Jonathan, age 15 and Jared, age 14.

    “My spirits were very good, I knew when I woke up I would either see Jesus or my wife,” Tolbert said the surgery. “I had peace.”

    Tolbert also points to a passage in the Bible, Luke 5:17-26 that gave him comfort. Several men brought a paralyzed man to see Jesus. When they could not find a way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up to the roof and let him down with his bed through the ceiling before Jesus.

    “That story gave me a lot of comfort, knowing that faith can depend on other people’s faith,” Tolbert explains as his life was in the hands of his medical team during the surgery.

    “It scared my kids, when I woke there were IVs hooked up everywhere. They called me the Christmas tree,” Tolbert recalls.       

The Days After

    The greatest risk for rejection is the first year following the transplant.  As of June 5, 2009, the one-year survival rate was 88.0 percent for males and 77.2 percent for females according to the American Heart Association. The three-year survival rate was about 79.3 percent for males and 77.2 percent for females. The five-year survival rate was 73.1 percent for males and 67.4 percent for females.

    But Tolbert is betting he will beat the odds. Taking it a day at a time, he hopes to soon be doing the two things he most enjoys: sharing the gospel and helping people.

    He looks forward to returning to the pulpit at Pine Grove Baptist Church, located outside of Coffeeville. A bi-vocational preacher, he also hopes to return to his day job as a licensed professional counselor helping people with emotional problems.

    But the expenses associated with a transplant will also be ever-present in his life. Fortunately he had health insurance through Baptist hospital network, where his wife works, but it doesn’t pay for everything.

    “There is one pill I take that costs $400 a month by itself.”

    His church has organized a benefit next month, April 16, beginning at 5 p.m. at the American Legion Building in Coffeeville to help with the expenses.

A Donor Advocate

    Tolbert also plans to be an advocate for organ donors.

    “One body, if it is healthy, can be used in many ways,” he explains. The eyes, skin, bone, pancreas, liver, intestines, lungs and heart can all help someone and save a life.

    He also points out that a live person can also make a difference.

    “A blood transfusion can save a life.”

    Meanwhile Tolbert may never know the identity of his organ donor, but said he has been given the opportunity to communicate with the family with a letter that will be mailed by the transplant coordinator.

    “It took someone’s love,” Tolbert said of his 38 year-old heart donor – a gift given through death.

    Sound familiar?