MEMPHIS, Tenn. — All month long, ABC24 is encouraging you to give blood and spread joy this holiday season.
RELATED: Give Blood, Share Joy
It's a priceless gift that saved Patrick Taylor’s life. Taylor is a busy father of three girls, but his heart condition was keeping him from being the father he wanted to be.
“I could walk three steps and be completely winded,” said Taylor. “I couldn't pick up my girls, it was just too hard.”
In 2006, Taylor was rushed to the hospital.
“I had a dilated left ventricle, so my heart wouldn't beat normally,” said Taylor.
At the time, he was 24-years-old, barely an adult himself, with a heart problem no one could explain.
“What the doctors decided to do was put a pacemaker and defibrillator in me,” said Taylor. “The pacemaker would keep my heart at the right rhythm. Then the defibrillator, if I did get out of rhythm, it would shock my heart into normal rhythm.”
That worked for ten years. But at only 34-years-old, Taylor’s heart was just too weak.
“We went up to Vanderbilt for an annual and they said, well, we really think you're a candidate for a transplant, let's do an evaluation,” said Taylor.
He was approved and waited for a match.
“The wait, it was just very, you know, very stressful,” said Taylor. “You know, you're talking maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe six months."
But then, fate stepped in.
“I went into the hospital, February 3rd or 4th,” said Taylor. “I ended up getting a heart February 10th.”
Almost six years later, Patrick is healed and home with his girls. Now, he uses any opportunity to spread awareness.
“Blood donation, organ donation, anything that you can do to help your fellow person is huge,” said Taylor.
This gift gave Taylor new hope and new life, with so much to live for.