Heart to Hart – The Martha’s Vineyard Times

Organ donation is often referred to as a “gift of life” for good reason. A single donor can save up to eight lives through organ transplants (heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestine), and a tissue donor can improve the lives of as many as 75 people by restoring sight and mobility, and helping burn victims. 

Olivia Hart, a Martha’s Vineyard resident and paramedic, is one of the lucky ones. This December marked nine years since she received her heart transplant. Despite having a healthy and active lifestyle, shortly after graduating from college she began experiencing fatigue, shortness of breath, and pain with eating or exertion. 

She hadn’t been feeling well for a while, but didn’t take it seriously at first. “I was working a lot of hours at the Seafood Shanty, so it was easy to say that I wasn’t feeling well because of work,” she says. “One day, I went to work, not feeling well, and about halfway through my shift, my coworkers — who really saved my life — looked at me and said, ‘You’re going to the hospital.’ I guess my face was gray and drooping. It happened really quickly.”

Due to a genetic mutation, TTN, Hart was told she’d need a heart transplant to survive. A TTN mutation affects the titin gene, which codes for titin, a massive protein essential for muscle structure and elasticity; the mutation causes primarily cardiomyopathies and muscular dystrophies, leading to symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, and heart failure. 

Luckily, Hart listened to her coworkers, and at about 7 pm, went to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. By 8 pm, she was on a ferry to Boston. “I went in thinking I was 22 years old and tired, to 22 years old and dying, which is crazy,” she says.

Hart was put on the transplant list, and received a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), which she warmly nicknamed “Chad the Vad.” “I loved it, because I felt so much better. I don’t think I even realized how bad I felt until I felt better.”

After having the LVAD heart pump for more than a year, Hart had her ultimate holiday wish come true on Dec. 1, 2016, when she received a call that a heart was available due to the selfless act of an organ donor who had recently passed.

With the help of the New England Donor Services (NEDS) team, Hart was able to connect with her donor’s family earlier this year, and learned that the donor was a 23-year-old woman named Nora Blake, who had been kind, intelligent, compassionate, and deeply devoted to children and animals. 

“I hadn’t heard from Nora’s family since the transplant, and didn’t know if they wanted to hear from me,” she says. “It took nine years, but I thought, ‘Maybe they’re feeling the same way I am — hesitant to reach out.’” 

Hart says taking that risk and connecting with Nora’s family has been wonderful, but also painful. “Someone I know said, ‘It’s like a gift wrapped in sorrow.’ This year it hit me hard. December 2016 was my transplant, and January 2024 is when I talked to Nora’s family. I struggle with survivor’s guilt sometimes, like if I hadn’t needed Nora’s heart, she’d still be here. I know it’s not rational, but … I carry immense gratitude for Nora, and for her family. While they insist that Nora made the decision to be a donor on her own, they raised a woman who thought of others before herself. That kind of compassion doesn’t happen by accident. Their strength, generosity, and willingness to honor her wishes in the midst of unimaginable grief changed the course of my life. I got to talk to Nora’s mom a few months before she passed away, and I still talk to her dad like once a month.”

Hart’s gratitude toward NEDS led her to become a volunteer. “NEDS impacted my life so profoundly that I wanted to be a part of doing that for others,” she says. “They support donor families, honor donors’ legacies, and ensure that every opportunity to save a life is handled with dignity, compassion, and care. I want people to know just how profound and selfless organ donation truly is. Whether as a living donor or through the decision to donate after death, choosing to give someone else life when you have nothing to gain in return is the ultimate gift.” In her post-transplant life, Hart says, she has come to acknowledge that bad things happen to everyone. “It’s an unavoidable fact of life. What isn’t unavoidable is how you respond. Strength becomes something you don’t get to opt out of, but optimism is always a choice. You have to choose hope. The bad days are inevitable, but you have to continue to choose life, again and again, for every bonus day you’re given.”

Hart heeds her own advice well, and doesn’t take a single day for granted. Recently, she was accepted into a nursing program. “The program starts Jan. 12, and I’m very excited. This journey has been a curse and a blessing,” she says. “The blessing is associated with finding my passion. I want to stay in emergency medicine, and eventually get into pediatric cardiology.”

The saying “It takes a village” certainly rings true for Hart: “I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the endless gratitude I have for this incredible community. The Vineyard has carried me through this journey, rallying around me with emotional and financial support, and an unwavering sense of belonging. Beyond the community as a whole, my personal support group showed up in ways both loud and quiet, and helped me hold myself together when things felt overwhelming. These are the people I don’t deserve, but who would stop the world for me if they could. I truly would not be here without those who love me or the people of this Island.”

To learn more about New England Donor Services, visit neds.org.