Heart-felt connection: Transplant recipient experiences 'cell memory'

[ Originally published on: Monday, February 25, 2008 ]

For heart transplant recipient Carson Orellana, 61, living with another person's heart has added a whole new dimension to the quality of love -- and taken him into a kind of 'twilight zone' beyond the realm of medical science.

'My family was working and living on Nantucket,' said Orellana from the home in Bernardston that he shares with his wife, Grace, and daughter, Sophia.

'We had a bookstore, a gift shop and an antique and collectibles store. There was a situation for a period of time where I simply was not feeling well. I felt like I had a prolonged flu. Went to the physician and she ordered an X-ray and then immediately referred me to some physicians in Mass. General Hospital.

'They took one look at the X-rays and said, 'Carson, you need a new heart.'

'Apparently, I had contracted what is called cardiomyopathy, where the heart continues to get larger and larger and larger until it just doesn't function any longer.

'I had a 2-year-old daughter, but somehow my wife and daughter managed to come and visit me every weekend at Mass General Hospital.

'I was actually in the hospital for over two years. It's a rather protracted endurance race from beginning to end because, as you well know, you can't go out and buy a heart; you are on a waiting list. And I was sick enough where I couldn't go home.

'But the heart just wasn't forthcoming. And, like most heart transplant patients, you become weaker and weaker and it looked like I just wasn't going to be able to receive one. I decided that I wanted to go home and be at home with my family.'

A strange coincidence

'First, I needed to have a procedure done where my heart was stimulated so that it would beat in a regular, rhythmic fashion. My heart was very weak and there was a chance, and a good one, that it could kill me. I went into this procedure filled with fear and anxiety.

'The doctor who came in greeted me and said hello, but he really didn't have too much bedside manner. I struck up a conversation, just reaching out to the physician, and I said, 'My name is Carson. I have a wife and children. Do you have children?' and in a rather gruff way he said, 'Yes, I have one daughter.'

'I said, 'What's her name?' and he said, to my surprise, 'Sophia,' and I said, 'Doctor, that's my daughter's name, Sophia.'

'And I said, 'What's your wife's name?' and he said, 'Grace.'

'And I said, 'Doctor, that's my wife's name, Grace.' And that's the last thing I remember before they put me under.

'When I woke up, the doctor was at my bedside, holding my hand and the nurse was in tears. She said to me, later, 'You know, I've never seen this doctor act that way before, so concerned.'

'And I said, 'What's his name?' 'His name is Dr. Carson!''

A new heart

'Considerations for getting a heart are weight, blood type and the best DNA match-up that you can possibly get. My particular heart came from the state of Maine. It belonged to a young man, an 18-year-old who, at the age of 17 3/4, went to the registry of motor vehicles and signed a donor card.

'He had just turned 18 when he died in an automobile accident. He donated all of his organs: his eyes, all of his skin, and his bone. In the end, he was able to help over 105 people, including young children who were badly burned and needed skin grafts.

'And, of course, I was extremely fortunate to be able to get his heart.

'After two years, I was able to contact his family and to this day I'm extremely good friends with the father, a single father in Maine who was raising two boys and he had lost one to this automobile accident.

'We first met in downtown Boston, at a hotel. He came up to me and we hugged each other, and the hug was rather prolonged and I started to feel a little uncomfortable, and then I realized what was happening. His heart was up against my chest: He was listening to his son's heartbeat.

'We both broke down in tears. It is our custom to this day to hug each other so that he can listen to his son's heartbeat.'

Cell memory

'On my way home from the hospital (after the transplant), I asked my wife to stop for a hat. It was in March and very cold. I went into a store and came out with a Boston Red Sox baseball hat. The Sox are extremely well received in this area, but I have never had a real interest in team sports.

'Well, I latched onto this Boston Red Sox cap and I didn't take it off for, it must have been, two years.

'I would go to church with this hat on.

'When I met the donor's father, I was wearing this Boston Red Sox hat and he said, 'Interesting. Interesting hat, nice hat.'

'I said, 'Yes, I don't know why, but I've been wearing this hat for a couple of years.' He said, 'Well, let me tell you. It was our custom, every year since he was two years old, I would take him to the Boston Red Sox games.

''His last Red Sox game was three weeks before he died.'

'And of course, the hairs on the back of my neck just stood up.

'After the operation, I was in a test program with Harvard Medical School studying what was referred to as 'cell memory,' the idea that a heart from somebody else may carry some memory of the other person in some way, shape or form.

'In some people, it manifests itself in food preferences. A vegetarian will suddenly enjoy a roast beef dinner and not know why.

'Here, I had this interest in baseball, this affinity for Red Sox hats. So it was concluded that there was some cell memory taking over.'

Hearts and love

'With regard to the emotional aspects of having a heart transplant, I've spoken to fellow transplant patients and I think one of the underlying factors with regard to the heart and its association with love and how we perceive love is that there is somewhat of a difference between the kind of love that I feel, having gone through this ordeal, and the kind of love that you think about on, say, Valentine's Day, falling in love or the passion of love.

'I find myself in a position where I really just appreciate the general wonderful qualities of love and that's being able to love and able to appreciate being loved.

'Once you go through a situation like this, there is an understanding, I think among all transplant patients, that you've been given a gift of life and you can't hit a lottery for $300 million dollars and feel better than having been given the gift of life.

'It's a profound gift and it has changed my life in a very substantial way, in terms of how I look at new life, at existing life and I have found that there is always something (to love), even though sometimes it is very small, in everyone that I meet.'

 

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