How did this dancer's heart transplant go? Recovery included a jig in a hospital hall
By Leslie Barker, American Heart Association News
阿方索·阿吉拉尔的父亲第二次心脏病发作，在跳萨尔萨舞时死在舞池里. He was 63 years old.
小阿吉拉尔自己也是一名狂热的交际舞演员，他继承了父亲对舞蹈的热情和实力. And, as it turns out, his heart problems. After surviving a heart attack at 51, and learning he'd been born with a heart defect, Aguilar channeled his energy into avoiding his father's fate.
He began watching videos and listening to TED talks, 收集医学和整体思想的想法和灵感，帮助他成为最健康的自己.
"In my mind, I was thinking, 'I'm going to live. I'm going to do whatever it takes to live. This is not my time,'" he said.
他每天都要离开拉斯维加斯的家，去换个环境. He danced. He sang karaoke.
"I did everything that made me happy," he said.
But his heart wasn't getting any stronger.
心脏病发作大约一年后，阿吉拉尔感到自己精疲力竭. 当他跳完整首歌都要坐着的时候, he went to the emergency room. There, he was told his heart was working at 10% of its capacity. He was in severe heart failure. He needed a heart transplant.
To bridge the gap until one was available, he had surgery to implant a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, 当心脏虚弱无力时，是什么帮助将血液输送到全身. The surgery was tough.
一旦阿吉拉从手术中恢复过来，LVAD就允许他按照自己的方式继续生活. He and his longtime dance partner, Irene Byrne, picked up where they had left off, 在接下来的两年里，他每周至少跳两次舞——因为他知道，一个改变并挽救他生命的电话随时都可能打来.
“我把手机音量调到最大，”他说.
Then one evening last August, 伯恩出去从车里拿东西，这时她看到了满月. “某种感觉告诉我，阿方索那天晚上会得到他的心脏，”她说. "Not even a half hour later, he called me: 'I have a heart!'"
午夜时分，他离开家，开车前往南加州的一家医院，在那里心脏已经可以移植了. During the entire five-hour drive, he said, he felt the comfort of that same full moon guiding him forward.
By 5 a.m. he was there. Surgery began later that day, Aug. 11, 2022, and ended the next. All went well.
Aguilar was ecstatic and grateful. He "felt stronger and more vibrant" almost immediately. 他开始每天在走廊上走几次，每次20分钟, as well as going up and down the stairs. 即使在静脉注射时，他也感到了跳舞的召唤，跳了一段视频中护士拍下的吉格舞.
两周后，他准备出院去心脏康复中心. He spent three months there – sneaking out a time or two, he admits with an air of mischief, 在被释放回家之前，去唱卡拉ok和跳舞. He recently crossed the one-year milestone, earning a reduced frequency in visits to his cardiologist.
他还是移植前的那个人，但他也变了. Always a voracious eater, 他吃得少，选择更健康的食物，帮助他坚持低钠饮食. He doesn't drink alcohol. His body fat is the lowest it's ever been. He finds himself being especially sensitive to violence on TV, and more caring and friendly to people he doesn't know.
"I'm much more outgoing," he said. "I feel like a teenager, and not because I have so much energy. 相反，这是因为我这样想，‘当我长大后，我想成为这样的人. I want to do that.'"
Aguilar wants to become a stand-up comedian. He wants to sing more, and to start acting. He wants to become a motivational speaker. Not long after his transplant, and despite his hardest class being public speaking, 他在400名观众面前为美国心脏协会发表了演讲.
And, of course, he wants to keep dancing, 他每周最多做五个晚上，其中两个晚上是和他妈妈一起, who is 86.
"He's making up for lost time," Byrne said. "He never gives up on dancing. He just loves to dance."
Stories From the Heart 记录心脏病和中风幸存者、护理人员和倡导者的鼓舞人心的旅程.