Heart transplant recipients celebrate the Ottawa Heart Institute’s 40 years of transplants – CTV
Dec. 10, 2024
More than 60 heart transplant recipients gathered Monday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Ottawa Heart Institute’s first heart transplant and the second chances at life they received through its work.
“My heart enlarged, and I needed a transplant,” said Mike Cloutier, who underwent the procedure at the age of 27 after a simple sore throat turned into viral myocarditis. “I developed strep throat. I didn’t have antibiotics. I was big, strong, whatever. You know, sore throat. Well, all of a sudden, I developed viral myocarditis from that strep throat.”
The Heart Institute has performed nearly 750 heart transplants since its first in 1984.
“This is about celebrating the patients and their caregivers and their lives, as well as the donors who have provided that gift of life,” said Dr. Rob Beanlands, the institute’s president and CEO. “We wanted to embrace how important it is that the institute supports that and to celebrate everybody’s contribution.”
For recipient Everad Tilokee, who was diagnosed with heart failure at 13 and received his transplant at 24, the experience was what he calls, the “gift of life.”
