At one time, Rod Carew thought the crack of the bat was the best sound on the planet. Not anymore. Now it's his own heartbeat. The 71-year-old baseball Hall of Famer, who was a seven-time American League batting champion, received a new heart and kidney from former NFL tight end Konrad Reuland, who tragically died in December at 29 years [...]
As a college student, Andrew Jones, 26, started training and competing as a fitness model, even earning his pro card. But in 2012, while on a run, he noticed a major change in his ability to breathe. "It kind of felt like my lungs had turned into sponges. Like I was breathing through a sponge. (Upworthy) Doctors diagnosed him with [...]
Stan Larkin, 25, lived for 555 days without a human heart, and unbelievably, played pickup basketball along the way. The father of three was diagnosed at 16 years old with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD), which causes irregular heartbeats and puts people at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Doctors implanted a defibrillator when he was a teenage, but when both [...]
Photo: Daniel Hajek By Matt Petrero The next time you want to make an excuse for why you can't or don't want to workout, think about Nick Toledo, Jr. For almost seventeen years, Toledo suffered from a heart condition not brought on by anything he did or didn't do. He was active his whole life, but in [...]