The recipient of one family’s love in the midst of their deepest grief

“Joseph “Jack” Champion was my sweetie and the recipient of one family’s love in the midst of their deepest grief. August 10, 1989, St. Luke’s, Houston, the family of a 27 year old man gave his heart to Jack who had been in heart failure for over a year. The LVAD was being developed in that hospital and it was still an experimental device that had only been used on a handful of people and calves. Yes young bovines in the basement of the hospital! Jack was in ICU when he coded (5th or 6th time) and the doctors decided to attach the giant LVAD prototype to him. It worked very well. He spent months living on that until he received his new heart. He was 43 years old when he began his new life. I met him a few years later when he was 46 and out riding his motorcycle and camping. He was finalizing his divorce and in the process of moving from Houston to the family ranch in Dripping Springs. He invited me to come visit and I wound up staying until he passed away 8 years later. He was a kind and hard working person who loved to make people laugh. We spent those 8 years completing his goals of cleaning up the ranch and traveling around on his Honda Goldwing. Our time together was very special and we were always with each other but never tired of each other’s company. He was not just my soulmate, he was my best friend. I have often thought about those who sacrificed so much so that Jack could go on to help others. For Christmas I had bought various ornaments for the tree and two were hearts, one solid and filled in with my love for Jack and the other was an outline of a heart with an opening in the center. The open heart was to remember the man and his family who gave so much. Jack lived to see the new century. His health was declining and the doctors had classed him as end stage. I did not put the Christmas tree up that year. He passed away on December 27, 2000 at home and on his own terms 11 years, 4 months and 17 days after receiving that incredible generosity and love from a family who wanted to save the lives of complete strangers.”

-A. Wren