The hospital where John Weakley stayed at prior to his surgery. He later volunteered 13,000 hours there and was hired as a greeter in 2006. Photo by Rachel Bolton.
As he lay in his hospital bed, John Weakley knew he needed a miracle to survive. He had been in the Coronary Care Unit at Faxton Saint Luke’s Hospital in Utica for nearly a month, and as he grew weaker hope was running thin.
“I was up in the CCU unit,” Weakley said. “I was so sick that when people came to visit me, I’d ask them to leave because I was afraid I was going to die.”
Before being admitted to Saint Luke’s for congestive heart failure, Weakley had suffered two heart attacks, in 1984 and 1988. One was so massive his heart stopped for more than 20 seconds. But, in the third instance, Weakley’s heart could not take any more stress.
He traveled to Buffalo for an evaluation with doctors and was told that he would be added to the transplant waiting list.
“They gave me a beeper and sent me home,” Weakley said. “I was only home a few days and I’d give the beeper to my wife because I was in the hospital more than I was home.”
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