Glen Kelley’s journey as a coronary heart transplant recipient got here full circle at the moment in Prague, as he addressed attendees of the Annual Assembly and Scientific Periods of the Worldwide Society for Coronary heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), together with members of his personal care groups.
As a highschool senior exterior of Peoria, Illinois, Kelley was identified with stage-4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent eight months of chemotherapy and radiation. After 10 months in remission, the most cancers returned, and he obtained a bone marrow transplant. Together with his most cancers as soon as once more in remission, he completed school and went on to get pleasure from a particularly energetic life for the subsequent 17 years, snowboarding, biking, climbing mountains, and even operating marathons.
Then out of nowhere, Kelley suffered a coronary heart assault at 36. Docs discovered his proper coronary artery almost utterly blocked and positioned three stents to prop it open. Over the subsequent decade, his ailing coronary heart would require extra stents, valve replacements, and never one however two coronary artery bypasses on the College of Minnesota Medical Middle in Minneapolis. By 2015, Kelley was in coronary heart failure -; probably the results of the radiation he obtained in his teenagers.
He was positioned on the transplant record and ultimately transferred to Baylor College Medical Middle in Dallas, the place he obtained a brand new coronary heart in 2016. An unusually lengthy and tough restoration interval adopted, throughout which he suffered kidney failure, a fungal an infection, and two bouts of organ rejection. In 2019, he obtained his second organ transplant, a kidney not directly donated from his youngest son.
I had assist alongside the way in which from my physicians and healthcare suppliers to volunteers on the assist group Second Probability for Life. I do not suppose my outcomes would have been almost as profitable with out the assist I obtained all through my journey.”
Glen Kelley, coronary heart transplant recipient
Regardless of all his well being issues, Kelley led a profitable profession in IT and advertising, together with 17 years at IBM. But it surely was by way of his experiences as a affected person that he realized his true calling.
“My metrics modified from how effectively I did at my day job to what number of sufferers I might assist,” he stated. “Sufferers grew to become my foreign money.”
Kelley devoted himself to supporting sufferers coping with superior coronary heart illness by way of in-person and cellphone visitation and assist teams, finally serving as president of Second Probability for Life for 4 years. Throughout his tenure, the group created an alliance with the worldwide group Mending Hearts, the world’s the most important peer-to-peer coronary heart affected person assist group with 115,000+ members.
With Mended Hearts, Kelley had a possibility to proceed working in affected person schooling and assist -; and to turn out to be extra concerned in advocacy and laws on the state and federal ranges. Immediately, he serves because the group’s Affected person Voice and Advocacy Chief.
“Working in advocacy allowed me to assist not one however 1000’s of sufferers at a time,” he stated.
Immediately, Kelley fills his days with cellphone calls to sufferers, in-person visits, and advising. In his new function as Affected person Advocate Trustee on ISHLT Basis Board of Trustees, Kelley will assist to make sure the Basis agenda addresses points that matter most to sufferers with superior coronary heart and lung illness.
His highest calling but could also be serving america’ new Organ Procurement and Transplantation Community (OPTN). Created final fall by a bipartisan regulation, OPTN is charged with revamping the nation’s organ transplant system. Kelley was elected thoracic affected person consultant to OPTN’s Board of Administrators.
“Sufferers at all times want assist, whether or not they comprehend it or not, in some unspecified time in the future of their journey,” stated Kelley. “This motivates me to do the work I do. I need to empower sufferers by way of assist and schooling and train them tips on how to self-advocate.”
