The ‘gift’ of a heart transplant gave him another chance at life – and a new purpose

After a full day of yardwork at his home in Mechanicsville, Virginia, Denis Popp felt his left shoulder throb.

He figured it was a flare-up of pain from an injury suffered while helping a friend move 20 years earlier. This time, it hurt so badly he couldn’t get to sleep. Pain medication didn’t help like it usually did when he aggravated the injury. The next morning, he went to urgent care.

“Mr. Popp, you’re having a heart attack,” a nurse told him. “An ambulance is on the way.”

Within hours, doctors had placed three stents in his heart to clear blockages in his arteries.

“Yesterday I was fine, and today I’m not,” Popp thought. “What the heck just happened to me?”

At 47, married and the father of four daughters, he feared not turning 50. He had quit smoking after having a transient ischemic attack, often called a “mini-stroke” or warning stroke just four years earlier.

“I shouldn’t feel as old as I feel,” he thought.

So Popp started taking his health more seriously. He discovered how far he could push his heart rate, learned about healthier eating and started walking regularly.

But his heart never recovered completely.

Doctors diagnosed Popp with a weak left ventricle and low ejection fraction, the measurement that shows the percentage of blood the heart pumps with each contraction.

In 2011 – when Popp was 54 – he received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, to monitor and regulate his heart rhythm.

One day in 2013, as he and his wife, Pat, were headed out, he went upstairs to get his jacket. Suddenly, he told Pat, “I feel like someone is shoving a hose down my throat.”

At the hospital, Denis went into cardiac arrest. He was diagnosed with advanced heart failure. Doctors placed him in a medical coma for five days to help his brain and body heal.

Denis received a new aortic valve to help improve blood flow. Alas, his heart function continued to deteriorate. He had to stop working at the jewelry store he managed.

“My body was just not getting enough oxygen,” he said.

Although Pat was working full-time, the medical bills piled up.

“I was using two canes to walk and could barely climb any stairs,” said Denis, who was told he’d need a heart transplant to survive in the long term.

Meanwhile, his left ventricle needed immediate help. That came in the form of a left ventricular assist device. The LVAD is a surgically implanted mechanical pump – powered by an external battery – that essentially does the work of the left side of the heart. Patients can rely on them long-term or short-term while awaiting a heart transplant.

“There’s a lot of training and constant care with an LVAD,” Denis said. “For one thing, you can’t get it wet. I wore it on what looked like a utility belt from Batman. You learn to live with it because it’s saving your life.”

One evening 14 months later – Jan. 3, 2017, at 5:57 p.m., to be exact – Denis and Pat were on their way to a restaurant to meet friends when a member of the transplant team called. “Mr. Popp, would you like to come to the hospital tonight and get a new heart?” the caller said.

Pat steered the car toward the hospital while Denis called friends and family to share the news.

The day after his transplant, Denis, who was about to turn 60, felt like a new person. And he had a new mission.

“Someone passed away to give me this gift, and I am going to do everything I can to honor that,” he said. “It’s now my calling to help others going through the same thing.”

Since then, Denis, now 68, has given his time and energy to hundreds of others. He volunteers regularly with the organ transplant groups LifeNet Health and United Network for Organ Sharing, the American Heart Association and Mended Hearts, a nonprofit that provides peer-to-peer counseling for people living with heart disease. He also volunteers at VCU Health, the hospital where he was treated.

Pat continues to work as a university education professor and state coordinator for homeless youth education.

After years of wondering whether Denis would survive his 50s, their outlook is rosier.

“There’s a lot of things we can celebrate,” Pat said. “And now we can finally plan for the future.”

Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.