Going on seven weeks with a donated heart beating strong inside his chest, Bernie Salazar was the picture of health and confidence at a small reception at Advocate Condell Medical Center.
Salazar, 52, underwent surgery at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn on May 19. Only the fourth heart transplant patient at Condell’s Cardiovascular Services unit, Salazar, of North Chicago, continues to amaze doctors and staff at the Libertyville hospital.
At the July 31 reception for family and medical staff friends, Salazar wore a surgical mask to guard against infection, the greatest threat to a donor recipient.
Linda Nixon, head of the Heart Failure Clinic at Condell, said she was moved to tears when she received a phone call in May that a donor heart had been found for Salazar.
“I was literally so happy that I began crying,” Nixon said.
Salazar, while considered a strong candidate for a heart transplant, has also had to battle his own antibody system, which aggressively rejects organs, tissue or man-made devices
Nixon and the clinic staff have been working with Salazar since he had a left ventricular assist device implanted in his chest four years ago.
“Bernie is just so upbeat that it’s hard not to be upbeat yourself when you’re around him,” Nixon said.
The device is noisy and runs on large battery packs that are held in place by body straps. Salazar said he had a moment of panic when he woke up in a Christ hospital bed post surgery and began to look for the battery packs he’d worn since 2014.
He quickly realized he had a new, beating heart driving oxygenated blood through his body and began to relax. Family members surrounded him, he said.
Salazar said he enjoyed good health in his early years, but a motorcycle crash in 1987 left him with multiple injuries, including a weakened heart.
The crash, along with subsequent medical setbacks including five previous heart surgeries, prepared him to wait four long years for a donor heart, he said.
“You have to take what you get (in life),” Salazar said. “You can’t be negative because of what happens to you, because if it’s not your fault there’s nothing you can do. You have to be positive and not afraid. I’ve had total confidence since the day I got my new heart.”
Mohina Gupta, an internist who’s cared for Salazar for three years, said he was an ideal candidate for a transplant.
“He’s young, did exactly what we asked him to do, never missed an appointment and takes really good care of himself,” Gupta said.
She said the first six weeks are crucial in determining the success of a transplant.
“If you cross the one-year mark, that’s a great milestone,” Gupta said. “I’m amazed how good he looks, his color and demeanor and vitals, and his zest for life.”
Gupta also noted Salazar’s attitude post surgery.
“We just can’t wipe that smile off his face,” she said.
For a few moments at the small reception another side of Salazar was revealed after Advocate staff handed him a small, framed photograph.
Holding the photo at arm’s length, he studied a vivid, crimson red image and became quietly emotional. The photograph was of his old heart shortly after surgeons removed it from his chest.
Salazar doesn’t know who donated the heart, which came through Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, a Condell partner. The agency coordinates organ and tissue donation in Illinois and northwest Indiana.
Agency policy is that after a waiting period, if both donor and recipient are willing a generic summary of information is given the donor family. After that, the two families can decide if they want to communicate with each other.
According to Donate Life America, a nonprofit founded in 1992, 115,000 people await organ transplants. A total of 8,000 people die for lack of a donor heart yearly at a rate of 22 a day, according to the organization. The greatest need based on availability is for donor kidneys.
Also attending the reception for Salazar was James King who has been waiting two years for a heart. He uses the same machine that kept Salazar alive before his transplant.
“I take it a day at a time. I’m looking at a point of how long I have to live,” said King, 55. “Is this machine going to stop in my sleep? I’ve known Bernie about one year. Bernie makes you want to keep fighting and hang in there.”
