Jeff Wierenga was 25 years old in 1982 when he got the news few people that age ever hear: He needed a heart transplant.
"It floored me," Wierenga recalled. "But when my mother — a nurse — suggested it, too, I knew I was terminal. They didn't take out the hearts of people who were going to get better."
The lifesaving procedure cast the Buckhead resident into a world of medications, complications, side effects and constant monitoring. It also set him on the path to a remarkable milestone: Now 55, Wierenga is one of the longest-living heart transplant patients in the U.S.
"Jeff is a very rare individual," said Dr. Donald Jansen, who has cared for Wierenga for 15 years as director of the heart transplant program at St. Joseph's Hospital. "For anyone to get to 30 years is remarkable. And he has such a dramatic story."
That story started in 1981 when Wierenga, an architecture student at Georgia Tech, was recovering from flu and feeling run down. When he started coughing up blood, he headed to Emory University Hospital.
"They told me I had cardiomyopathy probably caused by flu," Wierenga said. "They sent me home to Michigan to recover. All along, I thought I could go back to school in the fall; I thought I'd get better."
But once home in Grand Haven, a tiny town on the edge of Lake Michigan, Wierenga's health deteriorated. He combed his mother's medical books to learn about his disease, and in March 1982, realized a transplant was his only hope for survival. But 30 years ago, the procedure was still in its infancy, and only a few hospitals performed it. And most of those wanted $250,000 up front.
"I was over the age of being on my parents' insurance, so we had to raise the money," Wierenga said. "The local media did stories about how I needed a miracle. I did; my kidneys and liver started to shut down, and my body was collapsing."
Wierenga vividly recalls dreaming of being cocooned in a box padded with tufted gold cushions. The second time the dream occurred, he was convinced he was seeing the inside of his coffin. But a day after having the second dream, doctors arrived with the news that a well-matched heart had been located, and surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh hospital were willing to do the procedure with no up-front money. All he had to do was get there. An emergency medical flight was arranged, and when Wierenga stepped into the small plane's cabin, lined with tufted gold cushions, he realized his dream had been one of hope.
"Everything fell into place," he said, "and I knew God had played a big part in the situation."
At 1:45 a.m. on April 17, 1982, after a 3-hour procedure, Wierenga's new heart started beating. He was the 25th patient to undergo the transplant at Pittsburgh.
"At that time, there were only three places in the country to get a heart transplant: Stanford University, the Texas Heart Institute and Pittsburgh," Jansen said. "Shortly thereafter, many place starting doing them, and the surgery is way more common now."
As the 30th anniversary of Wierenga's transplant approached, Jansen did some digging to find out just how unusual his patient's story was.
"All the people who had transplants around the same time have not survived," Jansen said. "Stanford had a patient who lived 30 years but died a few years ago. They also have another who has lived 31 years, but her transplant was done as a teenager. As far as we know, Jeff is the oldest living adult transplant. He's very exceptional."
The average life expectancy for heart transplants is 10 years, and very few patients make it to 20, Jansen said. In Wierenga's case, his age and generally healthy condition played an important role.
"And he's taken very good care of himself," Jansen said.
After a 4-week recovery, Wierenga was back to riding a bike 16 miles a day. He finished his master's degree and took a job with TVS Design, a Midtown firm. In his spare time, he has traveled extensively, spending part of every summer in Europe and making it to most of Tech's away games. He's an avid photographer whose work has won awards from the American Institute of Architects.
Wierenga credits the grace of God for his longevity.
"It's not my lifestyle because I have eaten at McDonald's and Burger King," he said with a smile. "And I've learned not to get bogged down by little setbacks."
There have been setbacks: Wierenga's suffered from cataracts, skin cancer, a ruptured gall bladder, reduced kidney function and septic shock. The heart medication he's taken for 30 years has adversely affected his kidneys, and he currently undergoes dialysis three times a week. Without a kidney transplant, his life expectancy is about three years. He's hoping to get on a transplant list while his sister undergoes a donor evaluation. But the prospect of a kidney transplant hasn't affected his optimism.
"One thing I've learned is that every little crisis will not overwhelm you for a long time; you can always bounce back," he said. "I live each day as fully as I can, and that keeps my strength up. Each day you have is given to you by God, because you don't know how many you have."
