When Hank Mihelcic suffered a massive heart attack on his 26th wedding anniversary on April 18, 1986, severely damaging his heart, he thought he wouldn’t live to see his next anniversary.
Now he’s 85 years old and a 30-year heart transplant survivor who’s still going strong.
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Mihelcic received a heart transplant on May 13, 1986, just four days after being placed on the transplant list at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
“I was on my last leg and thought it was the end for me,” Mihelcic tells SLM. “Then they told me that there was a heart on its way from Milwaukee.”
Heart Transplants – Then and Now
Mihelcic was only the 29th adult patient to undergo a heart transplant at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
When Barnes-Jewish, then called Barnes Hospital, started doing heart transplants in early 1985, there were a lot more hearts available than recipients, says Gregory Ewald, a Washington University cardiologist and the medical director of the hospital’s heart transplant program.
Today, there are many more patients needing hearts than available organs due to improvements in the treatments for people suffering from heart failure. “In the early days of transplants, patients would wait days or a week or two for a heart. Now, they wait months or years,” Ewald tells SLM.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s heart transplant program performs 30 to 40 heart transplants per year and has given almost 800 patients a new chance at life since it began. Those numbers put the facility in the top 20 in country in overall volume, according to Ewald, who has been working in heart transplantation for more than 20 years.
Ewald says the procedure for heart transplantation is very similar to what it was in 1986, but the medical community has learned much more about how to manage the immune system to prevent rejection and about preventing long-term complications.
“We’ve improved our ability to keep people alive after a heart attack, so there are more people who quality for a transplant than when Hank had his transplant,” Ewald says.
Today there are mechanical devices that can support patients while they wait for a transplant. These pumps can be surgically implanted to treat heart failure, and patients can live fairly normal lives while waiting for a transplant.
An Active Life
Prior to his heart attack, Mihelcic served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean and Vietnam wars and as a navigator-bombardier on B-52s before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1976. He later worked as a real estate broker and returned to that job after his heart attack until he retired at age 65. He’s also worked as a railroad telegrapher/depot agent in the ‘50s and underground coal miner for two years.
A father of three sons, Mihelcic and his wife of 56 years have five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Today, he spends time working in his garden and goes for walks nearly every day.
“I’m very lucky and very grateful for all of the support I’ve received from the love of my life, my wife, Darlene,” Mihelcic says.
After his transplant surgery, Mihelcic joined the Barnes-Jewish Hospital softball team made up of heart transplant recipients and doctors and nurses from the program.
“At the time, it was thought that heart transplant recipients couldn’t be very active,” Mihelcic says. “But there we were, playing on a softball team.”
Ewald credits Mihelcic’s longevity to the fact that he takes such good care of himself.
“The one-year survival rate is 90 percent, five-year is 75 percent, and 50 percent of patients are alive twelve to fourteen years later. Twenty-plus years is less common,” he says.
Ewald says that part of the reason for the Barnes-Jewish heart-transplant program’s success over the past three decades is the fact that many of the physicians and staff have been here long term. “It truly is a group effort, and our team, including physicians, surgeons and transplant nurse coordinators, is committed to excellence,” he says.
“There aren’t many programs that have a 30-year heart transplant survivor.”
Organ Donation
Organ donations change lives, as Mihelcic’s story proves—but only if people sign up as donors.
Ewald wants to encourage individuals to sign their donor cards or at least talk to their family members and make their wishes known about organ donation.
“The donor pool hasn’t changed that much over the years, and when you start looking at all the bone and tissue that can be donated, a single donor has the potential to impact multiple lives,” Ewald says. “It makes it much easier for a family to make that difficult decision if they have been made aware of their loved ones wishes.”
To learn more about organ and tissue donation or to register to be a donor in your state, visit organdonor.gov
Michelle Cox is a wife, mother and professional freelance writer/communications specialist. She’s also a NASM certified personal trainer and AFAA group exercise instructor. In her free time, she loves running, reading, writing short stories, and blogging at michellemeltoncox.com.
