Mark BlackI was attending my fifth year of university, studying education,
when I realiz ed that something was wrong. I was becoming increasingly
short of breath and feeling fatigued for no reason. I began noticing that I
was losing weight. At the end of the school year I went for a quick
check-up at my family doctor’s office. It was there that I learned what
was happening.
My doctor told me that I was dying. My heart was in severe failure
and there was nothing else medically that could be done. Without a rare
and dangerous heart and double-lung transplant, I had probably less
th an two years to live.WRIGHT^
So how d id y ou cope with the news?
BLACK
Learn ing that I was dying, especially at twenty-three years old, was
hard news to hear, and initially I didn’t take it very well. At the time, I
was attending university and earning my second degree in education. I
had a steady girlfriend and we were excitedly making plans for our
futur e. Now suddenly I was being told that I had to forget my future
plans and sit on a transplant waiting list, unsure if a donor would be
found in time.
WRIGHT^
What in the world was it like waiting for a transplant?
BLACK
Difficult, to say the least. It was probably the hardest year of my life.
After four months of waiting, my condition grew worse and I was
admitted to the hospital to be monitored more closely. I ended up
living in that little hospital room for six months. It was a very difficult
time because I didn’t know if the call would come the next day or in two
years. I didn’t know if I was going to live to see the day the call came or
not.