Positivity: 20 years after heart transplant, beneficiary is planning next 20 years

From Bloomington, Illinois:

Sunday, July 8, 2007 11:02 PM CDT

BLOOMINGTON — Hy Roznowski got a perfect match.

We’re not talking about Donna, his wife of 53 years. But she’s been a good match too, and Roznowski said he couldn’t have survived the past 20 years without her.

The match we’re talking about is the heart he received 20 years ago Sunday — the one that saved his life.

On July 8, 1987, Roznowski, of Bloomington, made headlines in Central Illinois and in Kentucky when he got a heart transplant at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky.

The procedure was newsworthy in Central Illinois because heart transplants among people here were rare at that time. In Louisville, the procedure was newsworthy because Roznowski was Jewish Hospital’s 36th heart transplant patient, making the hospital eligible for Medicare funds for transplants.

Now, Roznowski, 75, belongs to another group: people who have survived for 20 years after a heart transplant.

“I’ve got 25 more to go,” said Roznowski, a retired teacher known for his sense of humor. “I’m planning to live to be 100.”

Kim McCullough, of the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, said that according to the publication Clinical Transplant 2005, about 12 people nationwide have survived for 20 years or longer after a heart transplant.

Go here for the rest of the story.