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Charles Eaton Puts His Heart into Supporting Organ Transplants. After All, He Owes His Life to One.

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Gina Holt

Charles Eaton's heart began breaking in 1987, when he suffered a severe heart attack that diminished the organ's capacity to function by two-thirds.

That was followed by open heart surgery in 1991, heart failure in 1993, five years of taking an experimental drug and then insertion of a pacemaker.

Finally, in 2000, at the age of 70, Eaton got a new heart, becoming one of the oldest heart transplant recipients in Greater Cincinnati.

Now, at 75, the Fort Thomas, Ky., resident exercises, enjoys his five grandchildren and spreads the good word about being an organ donor.

His story in some ways represents how far heart transplants have come from the days when they were experimental. University Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine celebrated the 20th anniversary of their heart transplant program this month. The hospital has performed 349 heart transplants in those two decades.

When he got his transplant, he was "the second oldest who ever got a heart over there," said Eaton. "But there have been three that have come in to knock me into fifth place instead of second."

The first human heart transplant was performed in 1967 by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in South Africa; American surgeons did their first heart transplant soon after. The early success rate was dismal because of problems with rejection, and doctors nationwide nearly abandoned heart transplants in the 1970s.

Then, in 1983, the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine was approved. It "revolutionized transplants," said Dr. Lynne Wagoner, medical director of the heart transplant program at the University of Cincinnati and University Hospital.

Today, 72.5 percent of heart transplant patients survive at least five years.

The first heart transplant locally was performed by Dr. David Melvin, on Dec. 17, 1985. University did one heart transplant in 1985 and 10 in 1989, as cyclosporine dramatically changed the transplant landscape.

University Hospital did 12 of the 15 heart transplants performed in Greater Cincinnati in 2004. The others were done at Children's Hospital Medical Center. They are the only two hospitals performing heart transplants in Greater Cincinnati. Nationally, there were 2,016 heart transplants in 2004.

Like many heart patients, Eaton needed to get on a waiting list, which was difficult because of his age. He was denied at first, but his doctors pleaded with the staff at University, and he was finally placed on the list. The first heart he was told he would get was bruised. Three more organs deemed suitable for him were rejected because of various problems -- one donor had HIV, another hepatitis and a third heart was not received in time.

"As a team, we have to carefully evaluate patients before we put them on the list," Wagoner said. "Donor hearts are not sitting on a shelf waiting for us. We have to ensure the people who we put on the list are going to take care of the heart. We require them to stop smoking and insist on diet changes and exercising."

Not everyone who has agreed to be a donor is eligible, said Andi Johnson of LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, which manages organ donations from deceased patients in Greater Cincinnati. The prime organ donor candidate is someone who suffers brain death, often from an accident or sudden medical crisis like an aneurysm. Fewer than 1 percent of deaths meet the criteria, Johnson said. "That's why we need so many people to register to become organ donors," she said.

Last year, a record 60 local donors provided 179 organs through LifeCenter. A total of 197 organs -- which can include kidneys, lungs, livers, small intestines and pancreases as well as hearts -- were transplanted in Greater Cincinnati, including donations from living patients and organs from outside the area. "But at the end of the day we still have 350 locally waiting for life-saving transplants," Johnson said.

Nationally, 17 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant, she said.

As of Jan. 20, 3,006 patients in the nation were waiting for hearts. University Hospital has 20, and there are 22 waiting throughout Greater Cincinnati.

Eaton's transplant came just in time. He had grown very weak and dropped from 170 pounds to 128. His heart was flown in on a private jet from Illinois.

He was put into a medically induced coma for 11 days after the surgery. "My kidneys went out, and my right lung went out," Eaton said. "They had to put me in a coma to keep me alive. I hadn't had kidney or lung problems before and haven't since."

Eaton has a wife of 55 years, two daughters and five grandchildren. About 18 months after he got out of the hospital, his 11-year-old grandson, who visited him a lot, told him his sister cried all the way home from the hospital after the surgery. Eaton asked him if he thought grandpa was going to die; the boy said yes.

"I said I couldn't die," Eaton said. "I have to live to see you all the way through school, play ball and maybe even get married. He said 'Grandpa, you know what I was going to do if you died? I was going to ask my mother to get me a big long rope, and I was going to climb all the way up to heaven.'"

Eaton has written the donor family a thank you note and hopes to meet them some day.

He has always eaten a fairly healthy diet and exercised, but his life has changed quite a bit since the transplant. "I quit smoking and I eat better. I've been a Christian for a long time but I'm more of a Christian now than I was before.

"It has been the most wonderful thing," he added. "I feel good almost all the time. I am much stronger. I feel better than I have since 1987."

He follows a regular routine -- it's his job to make the bed each morning, he helps with lunch, goes to work out at St. Luke Hospital as part of his cardiac rehab, and spreads the gospel of the blessings of the transplant program.

He has spoken to 31 groups this year about becoming a donor. He visits local hospitals, high schools and insurance companies.

"I try to bring them to tears one time and then I make them laugh as hard as I can with a story," said Eaton. "The reason I do that is because if you are brought to tears once a day, and you laugh a minimum of 100 times a day, you've had a good day."

He also visits potential heart transplant patients. "I have the advantage because I'm older and I got a heart. I know their age and problem before I get there. I can say 58 is young, I was almost 70. It gives them hope."

Most people are uneducated about what being a donor really means. "They think they're mutilated," said Eaton. "You would never know the person was touched. They look as healthy as a corpse can look. They can make one incision in your chest and take your heart, two kidneys, lungs, skin, corneas and liver and sew you up like surgery and you would never know it. They take such a thin part of your skin it's like when you have a sunburn and peel."

Potential organ donors can make their wishes known when they renew their driver's license. Ohio and Indiana have an additional online donor registry that includes those who designated donations on their driver's license as well as others who may not use a driver's license but want to be a donor.

Text of fax box follows:

Tip sheet

For more information about organ and tissue donations, contact LifeCenter, which coordinates organ recovery in Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, at (513) 558-5555 or (800) 981-LIFE.

Or go to lifecnt.org on line.

Source: Cincinnati Post

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