Young Female Awaits Heart Transplant

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by Lesley R. Chinn

Eighteen-year-old MariahMadison has always been a perfectlyhealthy female who enjoyshot weather, traveling, going tothe mall, and getting tattoos.

Madison has never experiencedgoing to the hospital except togive birth to her daughter back inSeptember. Life was perfectly finefor Madison until she discovered amonth later that she couldntbreathe.

At first, she thought it was just anasthma attack and thought takinginhalers would help. However,Madison discovered it was a lotworse than she thought, but it didntcause her to take her conditionlightly.

Madison, a former South side resident,went to a local hospital inHammond, IN., where she lives.Doctors told her that she hadCardiomyopathy, a disease wherethe heart muscle becomesinflamed and doesnt pump normally.According to the AmericanHeart Association,Cardiomyopathy puts somepatients at risk to develop heartfailure.

After continuously feeling ill,Madison went from hospital-tohospitalbefore she arrived lastDecember at the Rush UniversityMedical Center, where she is currentlya heart transplant patient.

Dr. Barbara Pisani, one ofMadisons doctors at Rush, saidabout one-third of patients whosuffer from Cardiomyopathyrecover from the disease. Wetried everything we could medicallyto get Madison better but itwas without success and so sheswaiting for a heart transplant aswe speak. She doesnt want to bewalking around with a batterypack for the rest of her life. Shewants to do what other 18-year oldswant to do.

She was one of many individualsfeatured at a Gift of Hope OrganTissue Donor Networks African-American Task Force telethonheld on Sunday at the House ofHope Church, where the focus targetedawareness on African-American organ donation andawareness. The Gift of Hope hashighlighted stories of people likeMadison to increase its campaignefforts on organ donation. TheGift of Hope has been in existencesince 1986 and they are a not-forprofitorganization that coordinatesorgan and tissue donationservices to individuals within thenorthern Illinois and northwestIndiana region. The organizationhas coordinated organ donationsthat have saved the lives of morethan 14,000 recipients.

Madison wears a ventricular electronicbattery device on her back,which resembles a school backpack.She said this electronic-batterydevice backpack has a cordthat helps connect to her heartvalves. Shes been wearing thedevice since January.

My heart wont last until thewaiting period of me getting atransplant. I really dont thinkabout the wait. Whenever I get thephone call, Im like Lets dothis, but if dont, Ill just continuegoing along with the backpack.

She has to wear the device everydayeven while she sleeps at night.When she goes to bed, Madisonhas to charge up the battery.When I go outside, Im nothooked up to a wall.

The electronic backpack device isheavy and uncomfortable forMadisons short petite frame. Sheonly weighs about 115 pounds.Some days, she wishes that shecould live life without the device.

Madison is currently an honorstudent at Hammond High Schoolbut right now she is a homeboundstudent. She hopes to join herclassmates as she walks across thestage for her graduation in June.

According to statistics from theGift of Hope, African-Americansmake up more than 29 percent ofpatients waiting for an organdonation compared to 17 percentfor Hispanics. About 14 percent ofBlacks account for organ donors.

Receiving a heart transplant forMadison would mean the world toher. Even though a person is nothere, I can still give them that joythat their heart is being taken careof, she said.

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