With the month of April, and National Organ Donor Awareness Month, over, it is still important to be an organ donor, said ASU junior Jaime Sherman.
For Sherman, donor awareness is a significant issue because not only is she a typical college student with a life filled of homework, friends, her dog named Jack and worries of finals, but she also is a heart recipient. In her 27 years, she has gone through five open-heart surgeries.
"The doctors were basically buying me time until they could figure out what to do," said Sherman.
"I did well for about 13 years," she said. "All through school I wanted to be on the cheerleading squad so bad -- my sister was on it, and my other sister was on the track team -- but sports were out of the question for me," said Sherman.
Sherman's fourth surgery came in 1998. She was swelling up with water and getting sick every morning. At the time, she was attending Pima Community College in Tucson and had to drop out because she was so ill. She had emergency open-heart surgery to completely reconstruct the left side of her heart.
"I was literally drowning in my own water, because my heart was getting weaker and weaker; everything was backing up," Sherman said. "I was expected to recover from the surgery, but I never did. I begged my doctors to put me on the donor list for a new heart and after many tests, they did."
In 1999, Sherman was put on the list for a donor heart. During that period, Sherman went through some very tough times.
Mike Alameda was Sherman's spiritual counselor and was asked to talk with her when she was waiting for her heart.
"Jaime went through an incredible time in her life," said Alameda, director of a non-denominational Christian ministry in Tucson. "It was amazing to watch her become the person she is today; it took a great deal of courage, but she was willing to trust God and let him guide her through life.
"I watched her endure some pretty incredible things. She is an amazing woman. I prayed every day for a heart for her."
Alameda's prayers were answered two and a half years after Sherman was placed on the list.
"I was at Olive Garden with my family, and I got a phone call from my ex-boyfriend, who was working at the hospital. He said, 'They have a heart for you, Jaime. You have to come down here right now,'" Sherman said.
"I told my family, and it was complete chaos; I was shaking, not because I was scared but because I couldn't believe I had a heart. I knew so many people around me that had died waiting for a heart," she added.
"I just can't really describe the feeling; it was euphoria when we found out Jaime had a heart," said Sam Sherman, Jaime's mother. "The fear was that the heart wouldn't come soon enough, but when I knew there was a heart, there was no question she would be OK."
"I consider myself blessed with the most incredible heart God ever made," said Sherman. "I got a chance at a new life."
Reach the reporter at leia.cumberland@asu.edu.
