Latest / HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN® / Personal Testimonies: Clinton's Heart Transplant Story Chapter 2 Ep: 1

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Personal Testimonies: Clinton's Heart Transplant Story Chapter 2 Ep: 1 · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

• 0:00
  So for many, many months, we have been on the air airing personal testimonies,
• 0:06
  which happened every single Wednesday night for a very short period of time. We kind of took a break.
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  We took a break mainly because our schedules didn't meet up, mainly mine.
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  But we haven't left off with anything as far as cliffhangers,
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  because what we wanted to talk to you about was what happened after Clinton
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  received his very first heart transplant. it.
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  There was a gap and Clinton is back. Only one thing.
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  We've got a huge twist and turn that he is going to share with you.
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  And I guarantee you, there's nothing you could have predicted to let you know
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  what we're going to discuss.
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  Personal Testimonies returns. And tonight, Clinton is back.
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  Have faith, let it begin. And Personal Testimonies starts right now.
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  Music.
• 1:00
  This is a special primetime edition. Have faith.
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  Let it begin and Endless Hope, Inc. presents a new series entitled Personal Testimonies.
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  Here is your host.
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  Music.
• 1:21
  Hello, everyone, and welcome to the primetime special of Personal Testimonies.
• 1:25
  This is Angel, and as with me as always, the co-creator, Clinton Knapp.
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  Clinton, my friend, it is truly a blessing to have you next to me again. How are you, my friend?
• 1:36
  I'm great. I'm wonderful. I'm glad to be back.
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  That little break was driving me a little bit crazy, but it got me to— I was
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  able to get reconnected with life again.
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  Yeah, definitely. It was well needed. Yeah, tell me about it.
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  I'm not going to waste our listeners' time.
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  So we're going to get right into it. The last thing we spoke about was that
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  you had gone home. You know, you described the ride home.
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  And then that was the way we left it off because we were going to plan on doing the aftermath.
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  Yes. So take this back, you know, what was it, like almost 15 years ago, right?
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  It would be just a month and a half shy of 16 years.
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  16 years. Okay. So I was off by a little bit. So let's take you back to everybody
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  that's been caught up 16 years in the making.
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  What year are we in and the floor is yours.
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  So we would be in the year 2010. It would be May of 2010, my one year anniversary.
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  Well, actually, no, we, I went home May 5th, 2009.
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  We left off in 2009 with me finally making it home to see my son for the first time.
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  Actually home. Because if you remember when I went home, I didn't go straight
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  home. I had to go to my mother's for a few days. Correct.
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  So that's where we had left off. So the next chapter would be what happens in
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  the next 15 to 16 years of life And when you find out what happens in the end,
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  you're going to be shocked It's going to blow your mind,
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  So the first few years, I want to say between 2010 and 2014,
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  nothing really occurred You know, life, I was able to get back to life In the
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  summer of 2012, I went back to work.
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  I spent a lot of time with my kid my wife my family just enjoying life without
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  any real real responsibility other than being a parent you know because i wasn't
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  working then the next year or so the next actually i'm gonna say,
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  all the way up to 2021 nothing really happened 2013 was an interesting year though,
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  it was probably the worst year but it wasn't too bad i had a few little hiccups
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  i had went and I visited my grandmother in March, right around her birthday
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  of 2013, and I contracted a virus.
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  It was called human metanomavirus, and I didn't even know I had it.
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  I spent a few days with a cough, spoke to my doctor.
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  She's like, listen, no fever, nothing like that.
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  Don't really pay it any mind. It doesn't sound like anything.
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  One night, I decided to go to sleep, and I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom.
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  And upon getting back into bed, my knees were sore. I was having a hard time lifting my knees up.
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  So my wife had to wake up, help me put my knees in bed.
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  Next morning, I contacted the doctor. She had me go to the emergency room in Middletown.
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  At the time, it was called Orange Regional Medical Center.
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  She said, they can put an IV, they can administer Tylenol, nothing else.
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  I want them to transfer you down here to Westchester.
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  Immediately. Okay, I did so. I got to Westchester and they admitted me immediately.
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  They started running tests and stuff of that nature.
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  By my first day there, this is where it gets a little scary for people,
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  is I was actually paralyzed from the neck down.
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  I couldn't move anything, none of my limbs, my fingertips, nothing.
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  Quick question. Is that, because I was looking that online and to be very honest
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  with Clinton, I don't want to stop you, but I know people are probably thinking, what is this?
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  You know, what is this acronym HMPV?
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  So I looked it up and it is a virus that usually causes symptoms similar to
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  a cold and it can make few people quite sick,
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  causing infection of the lung, ammonia, or inflammation of the airways to the
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  lungs, which means bronchitis, bronchiolitis.
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  So my question to you is that you being from the neck down. Is that part of a side effect?
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  So they, this, the way they described it to me when they finally figured out
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  what it was, and they told me that it was human metanomavirus was that it was
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  a virus that usually attacks people in Sweden and it's usually elderly people.
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  And that, yes, that was one of the side effects. I didn't have any of the other ones.
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  I'm sure if it would have, they wouldn't have caught it in time.
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  It would have, and as, as it progressed, it would have entered to attack the
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  respiratory system and stuff like that.
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  So now that they knew what it was, the doctor came in.
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  They had the medicine for it. And she's like, listen, this bottle has to run for four hours.
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  We have to run some, what was it, Benadryl before, a little bit during,
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  and then some after just to make sure that you don't have no reactions to it.
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  I said, all right. She says, after four hours, we'll see what happens.
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  So they hooked me up to the medication about two hours in i was able to move my fingers and my toes,
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  very little mobility in my you know like my knees and stuff like that but it
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  was starting to come back by the end of the four hours it wasn't a hundred percent
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  but by the next morning i was back to i could be me i could walk i could talk
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  i could move all my limbs it was it was strange,
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  so i spent another day or two for observation and then they sent me home and
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  everything was back to normal now a week or so later i was at work and felt
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  like i had butterflies in my chest,
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  i went to the hospital again after notifying my doctor they sent me back down to westchester.
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  After observing me, they decided that I had, they decided to diagnose me with rapid aphid.
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  There was nothing really they could do for it. It wasn't that bad.
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  So I spent another day for observation and home.
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  I was home for another, I want to say about two weeks.
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  And then I started to run a fever.
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  Called my doctor again, the same process, Orange Regional, transferred him at Westchester.
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  While I was in Westchester, they ran some tests and it came back that I had
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  really, really serious rejection.
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  Actually, when the doctor delivered the news, she came in the room and it was
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  me and my wife and she sat down on a bed and with tears in her eyes,
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  she said, you truly have somebody who's looking over you.
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  She said, because with the amount of rejection that you're going through right
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  now, and she looked over at my wife and she said, you should have woke up to him cold in bed.
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  She said, you shouldn't be sitting here talking to me. she says but you are
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  so we're going to treat it and we'll go from there they treated it i spent a
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  week in the hospital they did a biopsy rejection was gone they sent me home a question for you.
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  Did they mention at all back this two-part question here because i'm sure people
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  are going to want to know the hmpv did they ever find out where you may or may
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  not have got it from or Or is it something you just. Well, they assume that I.
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  No, they assume that I contracted it from the visitation in the nursing home with my grandmother.
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  Got it. Now, thank God that you were okay from that. But now the rejection,
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  that's the rejection from the heart you're talking about, correct?
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  Yes. When the body rejects the heart because it's not my organ.
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  I kind of knew the answer, but I just want to make sure that we're on point
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  because I'm sure that that could have easily misunderstood something.
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  So that is another side effect. It's a possibility when you have a transplant.
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  Yes. Okay. Anytime you have a transplanted organ or anything that doesn't belong
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  in your body, even if you've been shot and they don't retrieve the bullet,
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  your body will reject it because it's a foreign object.
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  Got it. It's not yours. It recognizes it as it doesn't belong there.
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  Gotcha. Thank you for clarifying. No, you're good.
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  Okay. So now that was 2013. That was just a few hiccups.
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  But prior to all that happening in 2013 Because I don't want to leave out the
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  good stuff February 19th of 2013 My wife gave birth to our baby girl We never
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  imagined we were going to have Because of all the medications and stuff like that I was taking,
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  So there was some light to the darkness.
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  Other than that, from then until 2021, there was really nothing.
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  A few little minor colds, you know, stuff. Nothing that I needed to be hospitalized for.
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  I made 10 years. So at 10 years, they no longer do biopsies because at that point, it's a waste.
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  You're just wasting time because there's chances are the rejection is not really
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  going to happen. But if it does, you'll show signs.
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  At any point in time during this good span, did you feel good?
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  I felt great. I was living life to the fullest. A lot of times I had two,
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  three jobs, you know, vacations and just, I was really enjoying life.
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  I kind of, sometimes I think I took it for granted because I kind of felt like
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  nothing had ever happened. Like it kind of faded away.
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  Like, I mean, other than the fact that every morning and every night I was taking
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  medications, I wasn't, I didn't feel like I had had a heart transplant anymore.
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  That's kind of that was one of my questions i was going to ask
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  you was some people like i know i know i had back
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  surgery so even to this day even though it was 20 something
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  years ago i still worry about certain things
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  but you kind of but you knowing you and getting to know you you'd live life
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  to the fullest like and that is not just a saying to the audience that is really
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  what you how you are so in one one aspect that's not a negative thing to say
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  i forgot about it it was as if it never happen.
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  But on the other side, how did you live your life? Were you supposed to eat a certain way?
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  I mean, what does that do? What does a heart transplant recipient do?
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  Does their lifestyle have to change?
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  So for the most part, when it comes to food and stuff like that,
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  it really depends on the patient.
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  Some patients go home, diabetics, some go home.
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  You know it's just every patient is and every
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  story is different for me i came when i came home i
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  came on a low fat low sodium diet yes there
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  were there were times when my doctor complained because i put on weight but
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  it wasn't nothing that was it wasn't damaging my heart so it wasn't that much
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  of a complaint so i you know as i said i just lived life to the fullest like
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  i did what i wanted to do when I wanted to do it, how I wanted to do it.
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  And I just wanted every day to be a happy day, a good day.
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  And I couldn't let the restrictions hold me back. I just worked around them.
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  You know, I knew I'd get up in the morning, I'd take my medication,
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  take it, boom. I don't got to worry about it until 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night.
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  So throughout the whole day, it's just okay, well, you know.
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  You're supposed to get back to life. And that's what I did.
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  I got back to life and I wasn't letting anything stop me. Thank you.
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  I worked on my career. You know, I like working with food. So I worked in different
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  restaurants, different establishments.
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  I started working in a nursing home because I wanted to get into learning how
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  to cook for patients who had puree diets and mechanical soft diets and stuff like that.
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  And I wanted, because I want to be able to, like I said, I love to cook. I love to work with food.
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  So I don't want to be able to not feed anyone because I don't want no one to feel left out.
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  So I did that for a few years And then
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  I moved over to Orange Regional I worked
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  there I was there all the way up until I worked there until they changed their
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  name to Garnet And then that's when someone in my life My wife's uncle had asked
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  me If I ever thought about working for the state So I became a cook for the
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  state of New York In corrections And that's different,
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  But I get to work with people Because not only do I like working with food I
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  love working with people I love people,
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  In the beginning I'm a little shy But once we break the ice I'm just a people person,
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  So not to stray But other than that Like you said I was just living life And
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  then January 1st 2021 No January 4th 2021 Is when I started work Was my first
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  day working for the prison system.
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  January June 2022 It was June 2022 2022,
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  yeah, June 2022, I went for my annual catheterization, which is every year.
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  I go down, they go through my groin, they go up, they look at the heart,
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  make sure the heart's fine, come out, I go to recovery, I go home.
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  And if anything's wrong, doctor calls me and notifies me.
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  If not, he doesn't call me at all.
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  So this is, this marks my 13 year anniversary. Well, a few months shot.
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  My anniversary is in May, we're saying June, so a month after my anniversary.
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  The next day, the doctor calls me with the results for the catheterization,
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  and this day was a life changer for me.
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  On this day, during this phone call, I was in the car with my wife and kids
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  on the way to my in-laws' house.
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  She was driving because, obviously, I was only 24 hours out of my procedure,
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  and I couldn't drive, and the doctor tells me that they found some blockage
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  in my heart and that one day I would need to be re-transplanted.
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  I would have to have another heart transplant.
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  And I broke down. I started to cry. My wife is looking at me.
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  I'm listening to the doctor.
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  Now she's getting nervous. She's asking me what's wrong. And I just can't.
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  I'm trying to process what she just said to me and what she's still saying.
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  And I just, at that point, everything
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  the doctor is saying on the phone is just blah, blah, blah, blah.
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  I can't process the fact that she's now told me that I'm going to need to have
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  another heart transplant.
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  Because now this situation is different. I'm not in the hospital and they're
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  saying you're going to have a heart transplant and then boom, it happens.
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  I have to figure out how we're going to do this. I have steps that I have to go through.
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  The steps that we spoke about in one of the first few episodes of my first story.
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  So we get to my in-laws and I get out the car and I'm making phone calls because
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  I need to obviously let certain people know. I want to let my mother know,
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  my father know, my sister know.
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  My wife goes inside with the kids, and she's telling her family,
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  and they're trying to console her because she's upset.
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  And I made a phone call to California to my cousin Dijana. Me and her are like a year apart in age.
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  No, a month apart in age, I'm sorry. And she is my rock. She's my best friend. She's everything.
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  And whenever I have something wrong I always call her and she knows how to make
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  me feel better and that is where.
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  Me, life got real again. It got scary. And I just didn't know what to do.
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  I didn't know how to handle it.
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  And I hate to say it, but for a moment there, for a little while, it got dark.
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  The faith that I had worked to build up over that 13 years was just sucked right out of me.
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  I went to a dark place. And I remember the pain that everybody went through
• 17:03
  the first time, the hurt.
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  And I didn't want anybody to suffer and go through it again.
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  So I spent the next couple months barricading myself in a dark space,
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  pushing everybody away, you know, trying to find myself to love myself,
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  but I wasn't able to love anybody else.
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  And it was just, it was a really
• 17:27
  bad time for me during this time i went
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  through i went to several doctors visits they explained
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  to me what it was that i had and the steps that i needed to take so i could
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  be re-transplanted so what i had was it's called you have to give me a second
• 17:47
  i have to look that's okay when you're when you're that,
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  I wanted to just take a second to acknowledge and share with our audience as
• 17:58
  you're looking that up and let me know when you're ready,
• 18:00
  but this is not something that's, this is not something that people need to
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  understand that is, this is very common.
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  That's what I want to say. It's very common to when you, when you have something
• 18:15
  happen in your life, for those of us that believe in God and trust in him,
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  this is where your faith is tested.
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  And you have to rely on others, rely on your inner faith and you.
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  And like you said, learning to identify who you are as a person to know how to battle a challenge.
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  But what you're going through at that moment, just by your description,
• 18:46
  is not only a storm, but it's a faith storm.
• 18:50
  And I can't imagine what that must have been like. I understand you have that information ready.
• 18:56
  So we'll get back to what I talked about later, but please continue.
• 18:59
  So what they diagnosed me with was CAV, cardiac allograft vasculopathy.
• 19:06
  So what it is, it's a condition that only affects transplanted hearts.
• 19:11
  So it causes the blood vessels supplying blood to the heart and the muscle itself
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  to become narrowed and eventually blocked.
• 19:19
  So because it's a transplanted heart and at the time the vessels that were being
• 19:24
  blocked were so small, there was nothing they could surgically.
• 19:27
  There was no procedure they could do.
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  So what they did was they started me on another medication, a medication that they use.
• 19:34
  It's an anti-rejection that they use mainly for, I want to say it's kidney transplants,
• 19:38
  but they found that it works in slowing this process of the vessels being blocked
• 19:44
  in heart transplant patients.
• 19:48
  So I spent the next several months going to doctor's visits and learning more
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  about it and stuff like that.
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  And then I had to, obviously, it was serious enough that they knew I was going
• 20:01
  to need to be re-transplanted again. So I had to take the steps,
• 20:05
  all of the steps that I didn't take the first time.
• 20:07
  I had to now take these steps this time around in order to be placed on the transplant list.
• 20:13
  So, for example, was I made an appointment. I had to speak with a therapist.
• 20:18
  The therapist had to clear me mentally to
• 20:22
  be transplanted again then i had to see you
• 20:26
  know several several different blood tests because they need to check for
• 20:29
  certain antibodies which i never really understood but i
• 20:32
  didn't have those antibodies and stuff like that which is good because it made
• 20:36
  it easier for it made it possible for me to be transplanted then i had to speak
• 20:41
  with a financial department because i have to have insurance or whatever somebody
• 20:45
  has has to approve that they're going to pay for the procedure before they actually list me.
• 20:50
  So I went through all of these steps and I was cleared and I was placed on a transplant list.
• 20:56
  Now, one of the questions everybody's always asked is, well,
• 20:59
  where did you go on a transplant list?
• 21:01
  So for adults, the transplant list is set up by, it's called status.
• 21:06
  So you go from a status one all the way to a status seven.
• 21:10
  So a status seven is basically somebody who's like, is going to need a heart
• 21:14
  transplant, but they're like.
• 21:17
  Years out like they're not even close to being sick enough to
• 21:20
  having a heart transplant so what i want everybody to
• 21:23
  do right now is to find out what number
• 21:27
  he is going to be on for the transplant list and we're going to follow up with
• 21:33
  that next week that's where we leave you i know you don't like when i do that
• 21:38
  but that's the only way we can keep you listening join us next week as we continue
• 21:43
  on with the story and what number he's on for the transplant.
• 21:47
  For all of us here at Personal Testimony, we'll talk to you next week.
• 21:54
  Hey, Have Faith family. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share the podcast with your friends.
• 22:00
  Visit our website, havefaith.org.
• 22:02
  Music.