Damien Hyde lived 42 years without ever having a heart problem – or so he thought.

He started to feel out of breath and tired. “I couldn’t breathe,” he recalled of the episodes in March, 2023. Multiple visits to urgent care, emergency rooms, and hospitals rendered the same diagnosis – asthma – and he was sent home. The third hospital he visited determined that Damien was in congestive heart failure and in need of the highest level of cardiac care.

“A lot of times patients with respiratory issues are misdiagnosed as having pneumonia or another respiratory ailment when they are actually experiencing symptoms of heart failure,” said Dr. Alexis Shafii, surgical director of Baylor St. Luke’s heart transplant program and associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. Damien had asthma as a child and he surmised that steroids from that treatment damaged his heart.

Damien was flown by helicopter from Brazoria, Texas to The Texas Heart Institute at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston where Dr. Shafii examined Damien and determined he needed a new heart. 

His heart function went from 30 percent to 15 percent in less than a week. An intra-aortic balloon pump implanted via a catheter was helping his heart pump blood to his fragile organs while the transplant team worked to stabilize Damien as he waited for an available heart.

Damien then experienced a potentially deadly setback. A blood clot broke off from inside his  ailing heart and traveled to the base of his brain, causing a stroke that blocked vital blood and oxygen.

The Baylor St. Luke’s neurosurgery team sprang into action, extracting the clot from a blood vessel in his brain. Thanks to the team’s coordinated care, Damian was left with no permanent deficits.

“Our multidisciplinary team is highly skilled and the fact that they were able to intervene on this critical issue in a very timely fashion was lifesaving,” Dr. Shafii said. “Typically, stroke patients cannot undergo heart transplants. Here, the team prevented neurologic damage so he was able to remain a viable transplant candidate.”

Damien received a new heart in May, 2023.

Just over a year later, Damien says he feels “way better.” In fact, he felt differently soon after he woke up in ICU, noticing how different it felt to have a strong heart pumping blood throughout his body. He was home by Father's Day, celebrating with his grandson at home and facetiming with two more. His wife, Robyn, noted a positive change. “He has so much more patience now. Before, he would get irritated and short-tempered. Now, he is spending a lot more time with his grandkids and really enjoys it, “ she said. “The staff was incredible and Damien got amazing care. It made things a lot less stressful to know that he was in good hands if I needed to take a break.”

The family wrote the organ donor’s family expressing their gratitude for the renewed life their loved one provided to Damien. Realizing that the loss of a loved one can be so difficult, the Hyde family wished their “new family” the “best of blessings for the gift of life they have given us.”