Feb. 14 has always been a day to give your heart to someone.
While many people receive heart-shaped valentines and boxes of expensive chocolate that quickly disappear, an Amity Township resident is still carrying around a heart he received almost 19 years ago.
Jacob Hafer, now a 19-year-old Berks Catholic High School senior who lives with his family on a farm on Limekiln Road, was born on Valentine’s Day in 1996 with a “broken heart.” Shortly after being born, his parents, Kathy and Tom Hafer, were told that he had been diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, a rare heart defect that prevents the left side of the heart from forming correctly as a baby develops during pregnancy. As a result, Jacob needed a heart transplant and was promptly placed on the list to await a donor.
“They gave us a beeper to carry,” said Kathy Hafer, Jacob’s mother. “And we had to carry it wherever we went. It went off a couple times but it was always a wrong number.”
However, after just 12 weeks, an incredibly short time to be on an organ donor list, the family received a call just after midnight on Sept. 26, 1996 that a heart was available.
The Hafer family rushed to the hospital, arriving at around 1:30 a.m. and eagerly awaited the arrival of the heart.
Jacob was only seven months old at the time of the transplant and doctors were worried that the heart of a five-year-old may be too big for the transplant to be successful.
However, after an initial surgery, doctors determined that the heart was a perfect match. Doctors were successful in the transplant and Jacob has lived 19 years happily and healthily.
“By about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, we were able to go in and see him. So we did that and he was in the hospital about 13 days and that was it. He came home and has been healthy ever since,” said Kathy.
The heart that Jacob received had been from a family in Atlanta. The donor family had just lost their five-year-old son in a car accident and had generously given Jacob a second chance at a full and healthy life. Kathy even sent a few thank you letters and a picture of Jacob to the family. She then learned through counsellors from the Gift of Life Donor Program that the mother of the donor family did receive her letter but had not found the strength to write back. In addition, Kathy was told that the mother kept the picture of Jacob she had received in a frame on her desk.
“That just really touched me,” said Kathy. “It was really very nice.”
Jacob explained that the transplant has hardly impacted how fully he lives his life.
“I felt like I never knew it,” said Jacob. “You kind of forget about it after a while.”
Since then, Jacob has done many things that doctors were unsure he would ever be able to do. Not only has Jacob run track and participated in CYO sports, but he has also competed in the Donate Life Transplant Games of America, a multi-sport festival to raise awareness of the need for organ and tissue donation. He had also worked on several other projects, along with his parents and brother and sister, to encourage organ donation.
Jacob could not have been born on a more appropriate day. February 14 is not only Valentine’s Day, but National Donor Day as well. Donor day is observed as a day to encourage people to register as organ and tissue donors so that more than 123,000 people waiting for a transplant can experience life to the fullest.
“If you ask me, I think organ donations are a bigger issue than people think,” said Jacob. “It’s a bigger deal than people would believe. It’s just as big a deal as something like cancer but I don’t think it’s taken seriously enough.”
According to the Gift of Life Donor Program, an organization that the Hafer family has been involved with for 18 years, 21 people die each day waiting for a transplant.
The program even has a website that allows anyone to sign on to become an organ donor. Those interested can go to www.donors1.org to sign up.
“I know everyone is kind of skeptical about organ donations because there’s a lot of myths about it and other things that prevent people from signing up,” explained Jacob. “But most of it is just false. There’s really nothing to be afraid of.”
