Sometimes in life, you get a gift you didn't ask for, maybe one you didn't even want. But it turns out to be something that changes your life.
On April 29th, a relationship will be celebrated at the Heart Ball for the American Heart Association. It’s a story that was born out of tragedy, but grew into love.
Garrett Leopold was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. “It's basically when the left coronary of your heart doesn't fully develop when you're born.”
He had a heart transplant at just three-months-old. And if that wasn't difficult enough, at five he was diagnosed with Lymphoma. But he beat cancer and got to have a normal childhood going to school and playing sports.
“She was beautiful, inside and out.” That’s how Laurie Pierce describes her daughter Amanda, and she lights up when she talks about her.
“Very outgoing. Always the center of her groups. She tried her hand at sports, but they weren't really for her. She’d just laugh as she tried to run down Bayshore awkwardly.”
“She saw people with her heart. That was said a year before we had any idea that all of this amazing thing would come up.”
Then one night their lives would collide. Laurie and Garrett explained the night their lives would be changed forever.
Laurie: “Amanda was with her best friend Taylor. They were driving to Tallahassee.”
Garrett: “It was starting to go down hill. One night my heart, the old heart I had, was just going all over the place.”
Laurie: “The girls were in an accident.”
Garrett: “A lot of doctors were starting to come in. A lot more often.”
Laurie: “The neurosurgeon who admitted her to trauma, he said the situation is dire.”
Garrett: “I was getting a little nervous because I didn’t know what the future holds.”
Laurie: “The brain activity was zero. So we called in a priest to serve last rights and said goodbye to her the next day.”
Garrett: “The phone rang at the desk, outside it started ringing and they said Garrett, this phone call is for you. It was my cardiologist. We found a heart and we believe it’s going to be yours.”
That heart was Amanda’s.
Laurie said Amanda made the decision when she got her license to be an organ donor.
“I didn’t make that decision. Amanda made that decision when she was alive on earth. We were honoring her wishes.”
“On March 11, the same day I received the transplant, a year later after I received the transplant, I met the donor family,” says Garrett.
It was an emotional experience for both.
“He brought a stethoscope so I could hear their heart. It was, it was, beyond words. It was so moving it was incredible. It was incredible,” says Laurie.
Four years later, Laurie and Garrett have an extremely unique and special bond.
“Yes, I'm carrying her daughter's heart, but she also treats me like one of her kids and one of her family members,” says Garrett.
Laurie may have lost one of the most important things in her life, but she found something, unexpected.
“I've been able to feel love through Garrett and through Amanda's heart living in Garrett. I don't have the words to put on it but I will just say I have a new love,” says Laurie.
This story is a perfect example of how the American Heart Association helps people in our community.
Allison Kropff was drawn to this story because of this video from its Facebook page and the Heart Ball on April 29th. It helps to fund research for the organization to help people like Garrett.
Garrett has a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It’s a congenital heart defect (CHD). Here is more information from the American Heart Association on CHD.
Congenital Heart Defects
1) Congenital heart defects (CHD) are structural problems with the heart present at birth.
2) Congenital heart defects are both the No. 1 birth defect in the United States and the No. 1 killer of infants with birth defects.
3) In the U.S., about 40,000 children are born with a CHD each year.
4) CHD can lead to lifelong heart maintenance, including surgeries and transplants.
5) Today, because of advancements made through research, more infants with CHD survive to adulthood. Despite the progress made in understanding and treating CHDs, the causes of congenital heart defects are still under investigation and more research is needed.
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
1) Garrett was born in 1996 with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) – a congenital heart defect that means the left side of the heart is underdeveloped.
2) HLHS is usually fatal within the first days or months of life unless it's quickly treated with a series of operations or heart transplantation.
American Heart Association Congenital Heart Defect Research
1. The American Heart Association funds more pediatric cardiac research than any U.S. organization except the federal government.
2. The American Heart Association funds research related to heart health and heart disease in children, including congenital heart disease.
3. In 2016, the American Heart Association funded nearly $13.5 million in new research awards broadly related to children’s heart disease. Many of these awards fund research projects aimed at determining how the heart develops before birth and how congenital heart defects develop.
If you’d like to help people like Garrett, you can learn more here.
What's really special about the Heart Ball: Garrett and Laurie will dance together.
