German Peter Fricke points to his heart, which he received from an anonymous donor more than 30 years ago, and says, "I feel he has always supported me."

Fricke adds, "I have never been interested in knowing the identity of the donor, and whether it is a man or a woman, but what concerns me is that the donor and his family have done a great job, and I am always indebted to them because they gave me an additional 32 years of life."

Fricke


remembers


change of heart

Freekeh - a father of three daughters - was 35 years old when doctors told him he needed to have his heart changed, and he had been waiting for several months to get it from a donor.

While he was lying in the Vinzenz Hospital in Hanover, Germany, a nurse told him the next day in the new year that he had to go to the operating room because a new heart had been found for him.

Fricke recovered quickly from the surgery, quickly contracting myocarditis himself.

Julia and Peter Frick at their home in Böcknem, Germany (German)

His daughter needs a heart transplant

Fricke is now 67 years old, and he retired from work after he was unable to continue due to a state of permanent exhaustion, and he believes that the reason for this is his knowledge that his daughter Julia also needs a heart transplant.

Doctors


said

The

doctors found that her heart had enlarged greatly, and that the mitral valve - which is one of the four valves in the heart - was not closing properly.

When

Julia learned that she needed a new heart over the next decade, she thought about the shape of her funeral, she said, as she immediately came to mind the length of time her father had spent waiting to find a new heart.






Organ donation

In late August, 8,524 patients were included in the list of the Netherlands-based charity Eurotransplant, which is concerned with coordinating organ donation among 8 European countries, waiting for an organ donor for patients, including 685 patients who need a new heart. .

On the other hand, the Society for Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery reports that Germany has fewer organ donors, compared to other European countries.

Legally speaking, human organs can only be donated to other people after the donor's death, with his explicit acknowledgment before death that this is his wish or if his relatives allow it.

There are other countries whose laws go beyond the requirement of expressly acknowledging the donation, and assume his consent, unless his family objects to it after his death.

waiting list

Julia Fricke, now 38, also ended up on the waiting list to get a new heart, and she was listed in March 2006, and her heart was finally found from a donor in November 2007.

The heart transplant was successfully performed, but Julia was saddened to be unable to continue with her training program to become a nurse, and she is still deeply disappointed.

For patients who undergo a heart transplant, the first year after surgery is the most difficult.

Long life with new hearts

After this year, many patients live long lives with their new hearts, however, after about 5 years after the surgery, Julia's body rejected the new transplanted heart, and her father says, "It is clear that the stress she was exposed to is the reason."

Only a very small number of patients who have had a heart transplant need a heart transplant again.


In


this regard, heart surgeon Jan Gommert, head of the Heart and Diabetes Center in Bad Oppenhausen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, says that about 3% of hearts worldwide are donated to patients who need a new heart transplant. .


The


rejection of Julia's transplanted heart meant her death, and she was 27 years old at the time, and she was transferred to intensive care.

Her father


describes


Find a heart again

The next day, the doctor told Julia's mother that the Hanover miracle had come true, and that the hospital had found the needed heart, as the heart had been transplanted on the night of her 28th birthday in June 2012.

The second heart is still working well so far, despite the passage of more than a decade since it was transplanted.

"My goal before the first heart transplant was to see my son take his first steps in school, and he is now 18 years old, and maybe one day I will witness the birth of my grandchildren," Julia says.