'A real gift.' 10 years after heart transplant, Long Branch woman is grandmother of 17
Laurie Williams awoke from her heart transplant to see her entire family, including her husband David and all eight of their children, surrounding her hospital bed.
“They all were crying,” Laurie said. “My husband bent down and gave me a kiss and said, ‘Please don’t stop fighting.’ That’s when I knew I was in trouble.”
Deeming the transplant unsuccessful, doctors “told my family they’re going to have to say goodbye,” Laurie said.
As she lay there, tubes down her throat, unable to speak and busting at the seams with fluid, her daughter broke the tension by quipping, “Mom, I hate to tell you this, but you look like Jabba the Hut.”
Her son followed that by likening her to a Harry Potter character.
“Everybody started laughing, and I was laughing inside,” Laurie said. “And all of a sudden the monitor went off, ‘beep, beep, beep.’ A doctor came in and said, 'What’s going on?’”
A testament to the human spirit, that's what. Williams believes the warmth of her family’s presence sparked something deep down, jump-starting the healing process.
“Within 24 hours my breathing tube was out, and I was good,” she said. “The medical staff did absolutely everything they could do. I had to continue to fight – and have something to fight for.”
That was November 2013. Ten years later Laurie Williams is still good. Her kids, now all full-blown adults with their own families, just marked the decade milestone by throwing a party at an Oceanport firehouse. The 62-year-old Long Branch resident is a grandmother to 17 kids now, with No. 18 on the way.
“It’s surreal when you think about 10 years," David Williams said, "when we were hoping for 10 days."
There are more than 100,000 Americans, including about 4,000 New Jerseyans, awaiting an organ transplant. In 2022, a record 283 organ donors in New Jersey gave organs to 670 transplant recipients.
Longevity rates for heart-transplant recipients vary, with some studies suggesting a median of 10 to 12 years. Laurie Williams is not counting the days. She’s embracing them.
“I feel so lucky,” she said. “I felt so terrible when I was sick, and I begged the doctors to get me through to when my youngest child was 21. I’ve had all these years of joy and it’s been a real gift.”
Meeting the donor's family
The first warning sign of Williams’ congestive heart failure occurred, ironically, when her brother needed a new liver and she volunteered to donate a piece of hers. As part of her screening process, an electrocardiogram indicated an anomaly, but she was too busy raising a family and working as a florist to follow up with a cardiologist. Her brother wound up getting a full liver from a deceased donor and life went on.
Slowly, though, her problems increased. Routine exertions became perilous.
“The phone would ring, and I’d go to answer the phone and I’d pass out,” she said.
Various remedies prolonged the inevitable, and by 2013 Williams was on the transplant list. That November she got the call to report to Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, where she received the heart of a 39-year-old professional tree trimmer who had just died in a work accident.
With the help of NJ Sharing Network, a leading organ-transplant facilitator in the Garden State, Laurie met with members of the donor’s family two years later.
“That was very, very emotional; it was very difficult,” she said of the meeting. “But since then the family feels like they’ve started healing. I’ve had close contact with them.”
They exchange emails and even spent a Christmas together, Laurie said, adding that the family lives in New Jersey but would rather not speak publicly at this time.
The relationship that bloomed “has been wonderful,” she said, “because it has brought this around full circle.”
'She doesn't hold back'
A year after the transplant, doctors gave Williams the green light.
“They said, ‘Go out and live your life and have fun,’” she said. “I took that advice and ran.”
She works as a receptionist at a medical spa her daughter owns. She travels. And she’s a doting grandmother.
“It’s incredible in the way she has gone about her life,” David Williams said. “She knows she’s been given a great gift. She doesn’t hold back – she’s very giving, always thinking about others. She wants to be around her children and grandchildren as much as she can.”
Her children, it should be noted, signed up to be organ donors.
“It’s like anything in life: If you are able to give, then you should try to," David Williams said. "Organ donation didn’t just affect my wife; it affected all of us. I’ve had 10 more years with her. There are 17 grandkids who never would have known her.”
That brush with death 10 years ago left everyone involved with valuable perspective on how to live.
“Leave the small stuff behind and concentrate on what’s important: family and friends, and being a good person and helping others,” Laurie said. “Without people helping others, I wouldn’t be here.”
To learn more about organ donation or NJ Sharing Network, visit www.NJSharingNetwork.org.
Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Long Branch grandma loving life decade after heart transplant
