Heart transplant recipients happy to get second chance
By Rachel McGrath | Ventura County Star

February is a very special month for two Ventura County residents who were each given a second lease on life thanks to a heart transplant.

Mark Bursek of Ventura and Ava Kaufman of Fillmore underwent transplant surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Bursek in February 2002 and Kaufman in February 2009.

Both had indicated on their driver's licenses that they were willing to be organ donors in the event of their death, but neither ever thought for one moment that they themselves would be on the receiving end, benefiting from that same choice made by strangers.

Now both are sharing their story in what's their anniversary month to encourage others to think about the merits of organ donation.

Ten years ago, Bursek of Ventura came down with what he thought was a bad cold.

When the symptoms didn't go away, he went to the doctor and in January 2001, at the age of 34, he was diagnosed with idiopathic cardiomyopathy.

"I had caught some kind of virus," he said. "It surrounded the heart, my immune system attacked it and then for some reason it continued to attack the heart."

He says he was given two options: either to continue as he was and learn to live with the debilitating effects resulting from the damage to his heart or to undergo a heart transplant.

"I was relieved there was a possibility of fixing it and a heart transplant seemed like the best option," he said.

During the 13 months he waited for a donor heart to become available, Bursek married his wife Julie and nine years ago this past week, on Feb. 8, 2002, he had transplant surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Bursek, who works as a customer service representative for a small manufacturing company in Ventura, is now the father of two boys, aged 6 and 4, and a 1-year-old daughter.

He says his decision to undergo a heart transplant was the best thing he could have done.

"It's pretty doubtful I would have the life I have now without it," he said.

He doesn't know anything about the person whose death saved his life.

"It's not something I dwell on but you do think about it," he said. "I haven't contacted the donor's family. It's a difficult letter to write because someone else is missing someone from their family in order for me to do well."

Kaufman another thankful heart-transplant recipient

On Feb. 21, 2009, on her 59th birthday, Ava Kaufman underwent a heart transplant operation at Cedars- Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Kaufman's heart had failed as a result of dermatomyositis, a muscle disease characterized by inflammation and a skin rash. It was something, she says, that struck completely out of the blue.

"I was a dancer when I was younger and I danced professionally and I have a black belt in taekwondo," she said. "I ran a business with my husband and I worked out every day and I was the fittest, healthiest person I knew."

After collapsing at her home in Los Angeles, Kaufman was hospitalized and spent seven weeks in a medically induced coma. When she regained consciousness, she discovered she had been given a new heart.

The only thing she knows about the donor is that he was a 17-year-old young man who died in a car accident. She says she's written to his family to thank them but has not received a reply.

"I wake up every day and say I am grateful," says Kaufman, who moved to Fillmore last year where she lives with her 13-year-old daughter Jade. "It's like the most miraculous thing. I really do look at the world differently now and I just want to be a great mom to my daughter and make her dreams come true and give back."

Kaufman now volunteers once a week helping to help support pre-transplant patients and she speaks at health education classes at Fillmore High School about becoming an organ donor.

More than 21,000 Californians are currently waiting for an organ transplant and 197 of those are waiting for a new heart, according to Donate Life California.

The nonprofit Organ and Tissue Donor Registry oversees the state's four federally designated organ procurement organizations including OneLegacy, which serves the greater Los Angeles area including Ventura County.

Statistics show that about one-third of those on transplant waiting lists will die before a suitable donor organ is found.

Bryan Stewart, vice president of communications for OneLegacy, says it's vital that as many people as possible register as a potential organ donor because only a very small number will ever be in a position to do so.

That's because, he says, a person's heart has to be kept beating in order for organs to be harvested and so with very few exceptions, almost all organ donors are those who have passed away as the result of a traumatic head injury.

It's not generally known how rare it is to be an organ donor," said Stewart. "Less than half of 1 percent of all deaths occur in circumstances that qualify for organ donation. That's why we need millions of people to sign up on the registry."

Bursek says he put a pink sticker on his driver's license at the age of 16, prepared to offer his organs for donation in the event of his death, but he never thought he himself would one day be a recipient.

"It's a wonderful thing," he said. "It helps a tremendous amount of people and if you're an organ donor you should tell everyone that's what you wish to do."

Californians to register as a potential organ donor, visit DONATE LIFE CALIFORNIA