Tag:

LVAD (left ventricular assist device)

Lodi Woman Shares Heart Transplant Story to Raise Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Lodi Woman Shares Heart Transplant Story to Raise Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness
Lodi Woman Shares Heart Transplant Story to Raise Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Story and photos courtesy of NJ Sharing Network Family and friends of Gina Westhoven love her energetic personality and zest for life. She takes pride in her life-saving work as an EMT with Englewood Volunteer Ambulance Corp. and as a business owner. She has a great love for traveling to some of the world’s most-beautiful beaches and enjoys chilling with her mom, family, friends and her 70-pound pit bull Micki. But four years ago, Gina began to face serious health issues for the first time in her life. She constantly felt zapped of energy, and, at times, she struggled to breathe and cou…
'Dream Became Reality': Linden Firefighter Inspires With Organ Transplant Story 'Dream Became Reality': Linden Firefighter Inspires With Organ Transplant Story
'Dream Became Reality': Linden Firefighter Inspires With Organ Transplant Story A Linden firefighter is opening up about his heart transplant in an effort to raise awareness toward the importance of organ and tissue donation. Knowing heart disease runs in his family, Mathew Pribish went in for a routine cardiology checkup more than a decade ago. "I wanted to make sure that, as a firefighter, my heart was healthy," Pribish said. During one of those checkups, the firefighter was told that he has Marfan Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that affects the heart, joints and other parts of the body. In 2013, after being monitored for a few years, Pribish's aortic root…