Illinois man receives new heart for Valentine's Day

By Bonnie Miller Rubin

Chicago Tribune

February 17, 2006

CHICAGO - The roses are beginning to wilt and the boxed candy has been reduced for clearance, but one Arlington Heights, IL, man received a Valentine's Day gift he hopes will last a lifetime: a new heart.

Gerrit Jonkhans' special delivery arrived at Rush University Medical Center on Tuesday, a day universally set aside for love. It came in an unmarked cooler from an anonymous donor, and to hear Jonkhans describe it - even in a post-surgical fog - is to know that his new heart is already swelling with gratitude.

"I am so overjoyed ... and to have it happen on Valentine's Day is really quite amazing," said Jonkhans, 49, the married father of two preschoolers.

Dr. Robert S.D. Higgins performed the operation. After 14 years and some 350 transplants, the cardiovascular thoracic surgeon said he has operated on Christmas and Thanksgiving but has never before collided with Cupid.

"I got on the phone and told his wife, `Happy Valentine's Day.' ... It was such a great pleasure to be able to share such a tremendous gift on such a special day," said Higgins, who called the patient's chances for survival "very good."

The physician declined to disclose the identity of the donor or the circumstances surrounding the death, except to say that the person was younger than 30.

Jonkhans' cardiac problems started on another holiday - Christmas Eve - when he had a massive heart attack while visiting friends in Seattle. He was treated with stents and angioplasty, but the massive damage to the heart muscle made it difficult for the organ to pump blood efficiently.

After returning to Chicago in January, he collapsed outside his physician's office in the northwest suburbs. He was stabilized and transferred to Rush on Jan 18, when it became clear that nothing short of a new ticker would do. He had been at the hospital and on an artificial heart pump ever since, waiting.

"We've been praying a lot," said his wife, Martha, who like her husband drew upon her Catholic faith to get through the ordeal. "We knew it would happen on God's timing," she added.

About 2,500 to 3,000 Americans are currently waiting for a new heart, but only half will receive them in time to prevent death. The average wait is 55 days; Jonkhans got his in two weeks - timing even more remarkable because of his rare B positive blood type.

A runner and former soccer player, Jonkhans doesn't look like a candidate for a heart attack, but disease in his family put him at higher risk, despite his trim frame.

Even at the darkest times, the family said, they were certain of a happy outcome.

"I knew that I could not leave my wife alone with two very young children," said Jonkhans, cradling a red teddy bear that played a tape-recorded message ("Papa's heart is ouch") from AnneMarie, 3 1/2, and Jan-Paul, 2 1/2.

A native of the Netherlands, Jonkhans moved to the Chicago area in September to work in the office of a Dutch biochemistry company. His wife is from Tacoma WA, and they have no relatives nearby. But friends, neighbors and parents and staffers from their daughter's preschool have helped out in small ways, allowing Martha to stay at her husband's bedside almost constantly since the illness began.

"People here have been wonderful," Jonkhans said. "They are what have gotten me through."

The transplant procedure was not without glitches. The procurement team was halfway into a three-hour trip to the West Coast to pick up the organ when the plane started experiencing mechanical failure.

"Luckily, it wasn't something that was life-threatening," said Susan Grossenbach, clinical nurse coordinator for Rush's transplant program. "So we wouldn't let (the pilot) turn the plane around."

Soon, in the waning hours of Valentine's Day, Dr. Higgins and his team were summoned to surgery to perform a procedure that is almost 40 years old yet still seems miraculous. Of all the organs available for transplantation, hearts are the most perishable, with a shelf life of only four to five hours, Higgins said.

The operation required the team to toil through the night. "But when you clamp it off and it starts beating, it just gives you the chills every time," Higgins said. "It's what keeps me coming back."

Because the need for donors is great and the pool is small, sometimes surgeons have no choice but to use older hearts "with more wear and tear," he said. That was not the case for Gerrit Jonkhans, who received the presumably more durable heart of someone younger.

As Jonkhans recovered from the operation, he and his family vowed to get more involved in raising awareness about organ donation and transplants.

"I never thought to be a donor, but I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago," he said. "This is not just a gift of love, but the gift of life."

Copyright © 2006 The State.com.

This article posted March 5, 2006.