Cardiomyopathy Informative Speech

My eyes pop open, and I look at the alarm clock; it is 1am and time to get ready for work. I creep down the stairs to pour myself a cup of coffee, taking care not to wake my kids. Today’s heart transplants weigh on my mind – there is a heart coming in at 3am for a young patient with cardiomyopathy – and I begin to read my surgery notes. A deathly ill 8 year old, who had been struggling for most of his young life with dizzy spells and fainting, had collapsed in gym class. It was discovered that his heart muscle was laboring to do the work of circulating his blood through his body. It is a genetic condition, which can only be treated with a transplant but healthy hearts for pediatric patients are difficult to come by and his life had been

We talk about the timing and how soon we hope to have the new heart in place. We calculate that the surgery will take a little over four hours, if everything goes as planned. At 3:31am, we make the first incision into the boy with one of our smallest blades. One of the other surgeons, Dr. Jones, helps keep the incision sites clean. We are closing in on 4:45am when we are ready to take out the old diseased heart. When I see it, I understand the really bad condition of the enlarged heart muscle that is the result of the disease, pale due to reduced blood supply and swollen with capillaries trying to do extra work. This kid might have only made another week or two without this new heart. Our replacement heart is young and a healthy red color with good blood supply from a donor who died in a car accident. As we put in the new normal sized heart, I hope I have just saved a

He is currently asleep but his vitals look good, which means the new heart is working. Cases like this inspire me to keep doing what I do, and I make a mental note to firm up my tentative plans for volunteering at Doctors without Borders in India. Tired but satisfied, I hang up my scrubs at 4pm to leave for the high school to pick up my daughter Jenny.

Our family sits down at 6pm for a dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I listen as my kids animatedly share stories of their day at school and their afternoon activities.

“We had a dress rehearsal for the 3rd grade play today and remember, the performances are next week,” says Mark,