Two people who met through the commonality of having undergone heart transplant surgery are in the news for tying the knot.
Ham Eun-ji, 28, who underwent a heart transplant for dilated cardiomyopathy when she was 13, and Choi Jae-won, 34, who underwent a heart transplant for cardiomegaly two years ago, are getting married on 11 November, according to Asan Medical Center in Seoul today (5 May).
Ham was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, at the age of three and was declared cured by elementary school, but was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy again at the age of 13.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heart muscle abnormality that impairs the ability of the ventricles to expand and contract, causing heart failure and arrhythmias, and is a rare and incurable condition that affects about one in 100,000 children.
Unable to function without a cardioverter-defibrillator,먹튀검증 a drug that strengthens the heartbeat, he needed a heart transplant, and miraculously, a heart donated by a paediatric brain dead child was available within days.
However, Ham’s long battle with cancer had already taken its toll on his family, and they were unable to afford the surgery, which cost tens of millions of won.
That’s when Yoo Mi Lim, a professor of nursing at Dankook University, who was a nurse at the Congenital Heart Disease Centre at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, stepped in and said, “I’ll be your aunt.”
As a nurse herself, Lim was able to raise money for Ham’s surgery with the help of the Asan Social Welfare Foundation, the Korean Heart Foundation, and Ham’s primary school and neighbouring school.
He underwent a successful surgery under the guidance of Dr Yoon Tae-jin, a professor of paediatric cardiothoracic surgery at Seoul Asan Medical Center, and once his body had recovered to a certain extent, he continued to build his physical strength through exercises such as aikido.
In an effort to help patients with heart disease, Ham meticulously answered their questions in an online café that is often visited by patients.
It was at this café that Ham and her husband-to-be met.
Mr Choi, who had an enlarged heart and was on life support and waiting for a heart transplant, was so grateful for Mr Ham’s generous advice that he offered to buy him a meal, and the two became lovers.
Now husband and wife, they are each other’s biggest supporters, wanting the other to be healthy.
“Sometimes it’s difficult for patients, especially women, to talk about marriage,” Ham told Yonhap, adding, “I want to show that I, who is 17 years into my heart transplant, can get married, have a family, and live a healthy life like everyone else.”
“When I was struggling to even breathe, I was miraculously given a second life through the generosity of a donor,” he said, adding, “I want to transform someone’s desperation into dreams and hopes through donation.” He also took the organ donation pledge in 2021.