Three heart Transplants to Aisle: Coach’s Relentless Recovery Culminates in Wedding
USA: A coach who has endured a cascade of surgeries and repeated organ rejection reached a milestone wedding after a third heart transplant last October. Her congenital heart deformity, which traces back to her teenage years around age 16, progressively worsened over time and set the stage for a long, uncertain medical journey centered on heart transplantation.
Her first transplant ultimately failed when her body rejected the donor organ. A second transplant followed but did not take either; that operation was complicated by an early bout of COVID-19 that prevented the graft from functioning as hoped. Those setbacks left clinicians and family scrambling and required another major operation, leading to the third transplant in October that restored a chance at normal activity and at walking down the aisle.
The couple met online and began their relationship with full knowledge of her medical history. She told him about the condition early, and his response was steady commitment rather than retreat. Early dates showed his practical care — bringing blankets and extra clothes when she was cold and hungry — and that consistency became crucial during the years of surgery and rehabilitation. She described relying on faith and taking recovery one day at a time as the medical obstacles mounted.
The long recovery sidelined her for much of the season she coaches, and the ordeal weighed heavily on everyone close to her. Still, the wedding day became a moment of collective relief and celebration: Adam Perdue, a coach at Bruton, stood beside his bride, who coaches at York, as friends and colleagues watched a relationship forged under duress reach a joyful public affirmation after years of transplant challenges and resilience.
