ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 29, 1996 TAG: 9612300015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
IN THE PAST YEAR, Brenda Perdue and Teresa Cox - neither of whom ever suspected they had heart problems - have gained new leases on life.
Brenda Perdue and Teresa Cox sat at their dining table, holding hands as they laughed and cried at the same time.
"We've got the prednisone bawls," joked Perdue.
Prednisone is a steroid used to suppress the immune system, but it can cause mood swings. It is among the eight or so medications the mother and daughter take daily to help their bodies accept the new hearts they received this year.
So far, both women are doing fine.
Perdue, 45, got a heart transplant Feb. 26 at Bowman Gray/Baptist Hospital Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. She recovered in time to take care of granddaughters Faith, 10, and Natasha, 7, while Cox had her surgery Nov. 14 at Bowman Gray.
Cox, a Pulaski native, lives in a town house near Virginia Tech. She is two classes shy of completing a degree in accounting.
Perdue and Cox suffered from cardiomyopathy, a chronic disease of the heart muscle that can cause the heart to enlarge and lead to congestive heart failure.
Cardiomyopathy has a variety of causes, including viral infections, but it also can be hereditary.
Perdue's grandfather died of a heart attack, but he was in his 70s when it happened. Her father died of congestive heart failure at age 54.
Still, Perdue said she might never have known she had the disease if not for an accident at work. She told doctors she didn't recall having any symptoms of disease.
"I'd get short of breath, but I figured it was because of spraying lacquer," she said.
Shortness of breath can be a symptom of the illness.
In 1995, Perdue got a knock on the head while spraying furniture on the assembly line at Braxton Culler Inc. in High Point, N.C.
After the injury, she began having blackouts. To find a cause for the fainting spells, a doctor had her wear a heart monitor for 24 hours and found she had an abnormal heartbeat. Next, she was sent to a heart specialist for more tests. The cardiologist told her that her heart was rapidly failing. He also told her that she would be a candidate for a transplant if she would quit smoking.
Patients have to quit smoking for at least six months before they can get on a transplant list.
Perdue quit the cigarettes and made it onto the list. Soon she received the heart of a young accident victim. She was out of the hospital in nine days. Eight days is the median length of stay for heart transplant patients at Bowman Gray, which boasts that it has the shortest hospital stay and the lowest transplant cost in the country.
The hospital has done 27 transplants since 1993. All of the recipients are still alive.
Perdue is still in awe that this has happened to her.
"I figured no one would ever give me a heart me being poor. I had prepared to die," said the grandmother of 12.
Perdue's heart transplant was paid for by Medicaid. She'd had health insurance when she worked, but it expired when she had to quit because of her illness.
Now, she suspects she won't be able to find another job or get insurance because of her transplant. Her medicines cost about $2,000 a month.
After her transplant, doctors suggested that her four grown children be checked for heart disease. None but Cox was interested, and even she decided to wait a while before going for tests.
Then in April, Cox contracted pneumonia. She dragged on until August, not really getting well, but still able to work her office job at Virginia Mountain Housing in Christiansburg. She was in the hospital twice between then and September.
In early October, she went to see her mother's cardiologist in North Carolina. He said her heart was ready to fail.
Her weight had dropped from 137 pounds to barely 100 because eating made her sick.
He put her in the hospital; a week later, she got on the transplant list. She celebrated her 30th birthday Nov. 9 with cake provided by the nurses; on Nov. 14, she had the transplant.
Between her birthday and the day of the surgery, she was barely able to stand, and when she tried, she said, her heart rate of 118 would spike to 160 beats per minute.
Cox had been ill for so long and the transplant opportunity came so soon, the reality of it didn't hit until she was being rolled down the hall to surgery.
"I thought that there was a possibility I wouldn't see my kids again," she said, tears welling in her eyes.
Just as Cox and Perdue hug and touch a lot, Cox's children, especially the older daughter, Faith, kiss and touch their mother when they're near her.
Cox was home from the hospital in seven days. Like Perdue, and all transplant recipients, she had to learn how to administer anti-rejection drugs through the intravenous tube in her upper chest.
"It was scary," she said. She had to learn how to use a blood-thinning solution to flush the tube entrance to prevent blood clots.
Cox goes back to the North Carolina hospital each week so that her new heart can be tested for signs of rejection. A biopsy is taken by inserting an instrument into the heart through a vein in the neck. Mother and daughter both have vampire-like bumps from the biopsy incisions.
The biopsies are done less and less often as time passes.
Perdue has had one bout of rejection. So far, Cox's new heart has shown no signs of problems, but the first year after a transplant is a critical time. After five years with no rejections, she can rest easy, Cox said.
She hopes to return to work at Virginia Mountain, where she has insurance that paid medical expenses.
As did her mother, Cox also never really thought she'd had any symptoms of heart disease until she recalled how short of breath she got when she walked from the campus parking lot to class.
Doctors want her children to be tested when they reach their late teens. Her brothers and sister have not made up their minds.
The experience that gave the women new chances at life also made them outspoken advocates of organ donorship. Cox already persuaded one of her home health nurses to agree to be a donor.
As of early December, 50,056 patients were on transplant waiting lists in the country, according to United Network for Organ Sharing, which has headquarters in Richmond. The patients need kidney, liver, heart, lung, kidney-pancreas, pancreas, heart-lung, intestine or pancreas cell transplants.
Perdue and Cox also advocate a change in law that will prevent a donor's family from refusing to allow the donation after the person can no longer speak for himself. Even though a Virginia driver's license has a place that lets a person sign up as a donor, the person's family does not have to honor the request.
"People don't realize how many people one donor can help," Cox said. "Each and every morning when I get up, I thank God for another day. Each night, I tell him I hope he'll let me have another. If we can get one person to change her mind to donate, it would be a miracle."
"We've had two miracles in one year," said Perdue, again holding her daughter's hand.
LENGTH: Long : 135 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON Staff. Brenda Perdue (left) and her daughterby CNBTeresa Cox both got new hearts this year and are doing well so far.
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