Almost 30 years … ‘living with it’

“It’s one of those things you come to live with,” says Donald Baker. Donald was struck by advanced heart failure in his youth. “We’re all going to die one of these days. I’d been saved so I didn’t think too much about it. I got on with life and thanked the good Lord for another day.”

After receiving a heart transplant in June of 1990, Donald has enjoyed the gift of “another day” for  29 and a half years. The record for surviving a heart transplant is 33 years; so he’s close. He says he’s been born three times: once in the womb, once in Christ, and once when he got his new heart.

“Donald has been amazing,” says his wife Patty. “When one thing hits him he just keeps fighting. He is a good Christian man that believes God always answers prayers. Not always the answer we want but He always has a plan for us.”

Up until the day his health failed dramatically, Donald had never really even been sick.

In April of 1990, he was an active father of three (Chris, Doug and Kerri), and only 40 years old. He’d been mushroom hunting, playing basketball with a son, and enjoying indoor time spent with his wife and daughter.

He was at his job at the prison in Cameron as a guard, when seemingly out of the blue, he felt faint, blacked out, and had a heart attack. An inmate started CPR; another guard assisted. He was rushed to Cameron Hospital and then to Saint Luke’s on the Plaza in Kansas City.

He was diagnosed with Ischemic Cardiomyopathy. His heart was damaged, the weakened muscles couldn’t pump blood.

Over the next few weeks, his team of doctors tried balloon surgery and pacemakers. Nothing helped and he was running out of time. Doctors told Patty that they were fighting just to keep him alive.

Finally, he was told his only hope was a heart transplant.

“At the time, it was terrifying for the family,” Donald says.

But he was in good hands. The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients placed Saint Luke’s as the top heart transplant program in the country for patient survival, given the experience, short wait times, and excellent post-transplant survival.

Of course, those accolades came in 2018, after the hospital had performed 800 heart transplants. Back in 1990, Donald was just their 48th heart transplant.

He set numerous records that will probably never be broken during his wait for the transplant. He had 200 code blues in 48 hours right before the surgery. His heart stopped so many times, doctors left a defibrillator attached to his chest.

Lingering near death, Donald had time to reflect on his life and wonder about what had made him so sick.

Donald was born and raised around Trenton. He grew up on a farm near Spickard. He was the only one of his five siblings born in a hospital. He went to school in Trenton. He decided college wasn’t for him and went to Vietnam. He did his basics at Fort Leonard Wood. He served as a military police officer at Fort Gordon, GA. He went back into the service the first of June, 1969, for AIT/specialized training.

He spent a year in Vietnam.

“I saw things I wish I hadn’t,” he said. “I lost a lot of good friends over there.”

Donald’s duties in Vietnam took him from the demilitarized zone, which was a mile away from North Vietnam, to the Delta to Cambodia.

“I saw a lot of napalm dropped and I saw a lot of Agent Orange dropped,” he says. “In that era, the chemicals were much stronger than what is used in the herbicide Round Up today.”

After he got back from Vietnam, he didn’t hear a lot of talk about how dangerous Agent Orange was. But a lot of his friends had skin cancer from exposure.

He came back to the States and served as a correctional officer at a stockade at Fort Hood. He helped farm with his father-in-law. Then he went to work at the Trenton Lumber Yard for nine years. After that he worked at Mormon Manufacturing for 9.5 years. He was next hired by the State as a correctional officer at Cameron.

That’s where he had his heart attack.

And Donald started wondering if it was really out-of-the-blue, after all.

Donald describes how while he was in ICU, a doctor came in. He told him there was a VA hospital in Virginia he could be transferred to, but Donald would never make it. Donald asked the doctor if Agent Orange was a factor in what was happening to him. The doctor looked surprised and walked out without giving an answer. To Donald, his silence was the same as an admission.

“Since then, I’ve had cancer doctors and heart doctors verify that my heart problems were caused by Agent Orange,” Donald says. “Still, if they asked me to go back today, I would.”

After five weeks of waiting for a heart, Donald was delivered from death’s doorstep by a perfect stranger. A 30-year-old man from Colorado.

Donald doesn’t know much about the donor. His family experienced a tragedy and Donald and his family naturally felt bad about that. But the young man’s generosity allowed Donald to live another day … for 30 years.

Since having the transplant he has had occasional setbacks.

“If you totaled the time up, I’ve spent months, even years in the hospital for checkups and to get the medicines adjusted,” he says.

The bill for the heart transplant was staggering; in one day it tallied $249,000.

But he was back on his feet and that’s what mattered.

He is the longest surviving heart transplant patient out of Saint Luke’s at the present time.

“All of those who had heart transplants before me, and numerous ones after, have passed on,” he says.

It is faith that keeps him going.

“The Lord isn’t done with me yet,” he says. Among his favorite things now are fishing every chance he gets and watching his grandchildren play sports.

Patty adds that the last 29 years, they have had many ups and downs.

“Living with this man has been an amazing adventure,” she says. “I’m so grateful for all our years together, our family and all the wonderful medical care Donald has received. God has truly blessed us.”

Donald said that beginning this year he’s had this and that wrong with him. He had a pacemaker put in after Labor Day.

“I’ve had a fantastic life,” he says. “Because of my heart attack, I missed my oldest boy’s graduation. But I got to see the rest of my kids graduate. I’ve got nine beautiful grandchildren, a lovely wife who’s been fantastic for over 50 years. And the only thing I want to add is — Jesus saves.”