News
Poet's new heart opens life's next stanza
Poets and death have long been intimates. But not many of them have confronted their mortality with the intimacy — or urgency — that Dean Young, the 55-year-old William Livingston Chair of Poetry at the University of Texas, has.
On Dec. 9, Young had emergency surgery when his heart stopped working, and he needed to have two mechanical devices placed in his chest to pump blood for both chambers, said Dr. Eric Hoenicke, the lead cardiothoracic surgeon who implanted Young's ventricular assist devices at Seton Medical Center Austin .
"The heart was barely moving," and Young's organs were shutting down, Hoenicke said. "I don't think he would have survived that night." Nor would Young have become strong enough to receive a heart transplant April 15 without the devices. The transplant has transformed his life and made him an outspoken proponent of organ donation.
"I've always appreciated life, I think, but now I am in the midst of a scientific miracle," said Young, whose father died of a stroke at age 49. "It is truly amazing. ... I have gotten more life. I have been given another life through this great gift."
Read Dean’s story here:
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/poets-new-heart-opens-lifes-next-stanza-1548266.html?cxtype=rss_ece_frontpage