ROCKPORT, Maine — Sam Clark sat up in a chair Dec. 17 and watched some sports on television, three days after getting a new heart and a new lease on life.
Clark received the new heart in the early morning hours of Dec. 14 at the Children’s Hospital of Boston, his mother, Cathy Clark, said. By Dec. 20, he was taking short walks down the hall.
The 17-year-old junior from Camden Hills Regional High School was placed on the transplant list on July 23 after having lived with a heart condition since birth. His mother said her son had been briefly taken off the list in November, when tests showed the pressure on his lungs had risen to too high a level.
So doctors at Children’s Hospital performed open-heart surgery on the teen and inserted a mechanical pump in his left ventricle, she said. That equipment helped to lower the pressure on his lungs, and he was put back on the transplant list when he was released from the Boston hospital on Dec. 8.
Then on Dec. 13, the family received a telephone call in the afternoon from the hospital that a heart was available. The family had been staying in Portland to be within a two-hour drive of Boston as the transplant procedure requires.
Sam is feeling upbeat, she said. The breathing tube was removed Dec. 16, and he sat up the next day to watch sports on TV. He is a huge New England Patriots fan, she pointed out.
“He was smiling and laughed a little bit, but he said it hurts too much to laugh,” his mother said.
Clark is expected to spend two weeks to a month at the hospital before he will be allowed to leave. The Rockport youth will need to remain no farther away than Portland, however, for the constant checkups he will need in Boston.
Doctors have advised the family against being around crowds for a while because of the risk of catching some illness that could jeopardize the teen in his weakened state. Sam and his family are hopeful he will be well enough by the end of June to attend his junior class’ scheduled trip to Washington, D.C.
“He is very excited about being able to go to Washington,” she said.
His mother said there are so many people to thank. She said the community has been very supportive, and the medical team has been great. They don’t yet know who the donor was, but Cathy Clark said her family was thankful to the family of the person whose heart Sam received. She said at some point the Clarks might learn more about the donor if both families agree.
Sam Clark’s heart problems began before he was born, when he contracted a virus while Cathy Clark was pregnant with him. She had become sick with a late summer flu virus and became so ill that doctors performed an emergency cesarean section. Sam ended up in the neonatal intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Cathy Clark said that on her son’s fifth day at the hospital, he took a turn for the worse. He began suffering heart, liver and kidney failure from the virus. He ended up spending four months in the hospital and received 75 blood transfusions during that period.
Nurses told the mother Sam Clark was the sickest baby they had ever seen who survived. He was declared the Children’s Miracle Network baby for 1997 and has since twice appeared on the Miracle Network telethon in Maine.
The community has rallied to support Clark through an online crowdfunding effort this past summer, as well as through a pair of benefit concerts.
“This is incredibly wonderful news. Sam and his family have been waiting for this for so many years,” said Elyse Socker, who is program director of the Five Town CSD adult and community education program and one of the supporters.
“So much of their time was spent waiting for his overall health to be at the right level, and he spent a lot of time in the hospital during brief — but worrisome — crisis periods, and all along they never knew if and when he’d get a heart transplant,” she said. “Now the waiting is over, and Sam and his whole family can all be on the way to a more normal life. We are all very grateful.”