Peoria resident Shay Weldy was an active 28-year-old working mother and basketball coach in 2008 when she began experiencing excessive fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath and swelling.
“When I first went to Prompt Care, they told me I had bronchitis and gave me an inhaler. And when I went home, things just got worse for me,” said Weldy. “I ended up going to the ER and that’s when I found out my heart was functioning at 10-15%.”
More than eight years later, Weldy received a heart transplant that has allowed her to return to her active self – playing basketball, going on walks and performing routines on TikTok with her daughter.
With August serving as National Minority Organ Donor Awareness Month, Weldy is sharing her experience to encourage more people of color to register as donors.
“In our minority community, a lot of people have a lot of thoughts about organ donation,” said Weldy. “They’re not as aware or educated about a lot of facts.
“Minorities are high on the list waiting for transplants, but they’re not high on the list of being donors. We can make a change by becoming aware and becoming donors and that way we’re able to save more people’s lives.”
Marion Shuck, director of family services and community outreach for the Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network, says 60% of the more than 109,000 people waiting for organs in the U.S. are people of color.
“We want people to start the conversation about organ donation, not just when something tragic happens, but every day,” said Shuck. “You should start the conversation. Help your loved ones understand what your decision is, or what your decision isn’t.”
Doctors feared Weldy might not make it out of the hospital after that first emergency room visit. She went to Northwestern University’s cardiovascular institute, where she had a heart attack while undergoing an angiogram. Eventually, she had a defibrillator implanted and was sent home with medications to help regulate her heart beat.
Weldy said she had several ups and downs over the ensuing years. Among them was the birth of her second child just two years after her initial diagnosis, even though doctors gave her about a 40% chance of surviving the pregnancy. But in December 2016, her heart took another turn for the worse.
“My doctor here in Peoria was like, ‘Hey, there’s nothing else we could do. There’s no surgeries we can do that can correct the problem that’s going on right now. I’m going to have to send you back to Northwestern because right now a new heart is the only thing that’s going to save you.”
As a short-term solution, surgeons implanted a battery-operated pump called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) to keep her blood flowing sufficiently while she waited for a new heart. Eight months later, Weldy’s phone rang with news she would never forget.
“I got the call, at 10:30 at night on August 2nd, that they had a heart available,” she said, adding she recalls the moment vividly.
“My daughter and I were sitting down, and she said, ‘Mommy, when will you get your new heart?’ And I was like, ‘You know what, sweetie? I don’t know. We’ll continue to pray about it like we normally do.’ Literally 10 minutes later, my phone rang and there was Northwestern calling me to tell me they had a heart available. I was just so overwhelmed with emotions.”
Shuck said kidneys are needed most and that minorities represent a significant portion on the waiting lists for all organs.
“We have African-Americans who are waiting more disproportionately, Hispanic-Americans waiting more disproportionately, and Asian-Americans,” she said.
For Weldy, the need for more minority organ donors is a message she has taken to heart – literally.
“Someone became a donor and saved my life,” she said. “So, I strongly encourage others to become aware and become organ donors so they can save someone else’s life as well.”
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