“I Feel Limitless,” Said Heart Transplant Recipient

By Barbara LeBlanc

There was a time when Shirley Coe could not lift a forkful of food to her mouth. She could not walk more than a few steps without needing to rest. And she did not watch her grandchildren without fearing something might go wrong while they were in her care.

Then, one night in March 2006, she got the call she had been waiting 16 months to receive — a donor heart was available, and she should go immediately to the hospital for a heart transplant.

Today, the 70-year-old Coe lives in Sandwich, Mass., with her husband, Dean, and is a passionate gardener, organist and painter — as well as a vocal advocate of organ donation. She works with the New England Organ Bank to tell high school students across Cape Cod about the importance of signing up as organ donors when they get their driver’s license.

“For me, it is a miracle that they can take a diseased heart or other organ and replace it with a healthy one,” she said.

Coe had suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic condition that causes heart failure and a dangerous form of arrhythmia. For years, medication and an internal defibrillator controlled the illness that had killed three of her brothers, one at age 15, and her mother at age 45. But by 1992, she had to leave her job as a clinical social worker for a visiting nurse and hospice organization on Cape Cod because she could no longer keep up.

“I could not say the word retirement,” she said. “‘I am taking a little time off.’ That’s what I said.”

Coe now walks miles every day. She kayaks and happily takes charge of her grandchildren. She said she feels limitless and lives every day with great gratitude to her young, anonymous donor and his or her family, and for the medical advances that have kept her not only alive, but vital. She also speaks publicly about the importance of organ donation.

“One person can help 50 people with donated organs and tissue,” she said when talking about balancing the tragedy of loss with the gift of organ donation. “I hope that brings a family comfort and peace.”