KANSAS CITY, Mo — A Missouri teacher is ready to go back to work after an undetected heart issue forced her to have an emergency heart transplant.
Jennifer Gill has been a teacher for more than 20 years. She's known for being a devout fourth grade teacher who puts education and students first in Shelbina, Missouri.
“I've been a teacher for 23 years, that’s my job, to take care of my kids," Gill said.
However, for the past nine months she's been away from the classroom, taking care of herself and her new heart.
“When I woke up, I was told 'Your heart is gone and you have a new heart,' and I couldn’t comprehend what was going on," Gill recalled.
Gill said the events that took place on May 21, 2021, remain a blur, but she remembers despite not feeling well for a week, she attended events scheduled for the last day of school.
During a last-day of school school assembly, her condition got worse and Gill was taken to see the school nurse who told her to go to the hospital.
She was checked out by a cardiologist, and then airlifted to Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute where doctors discovered the problem and realized she needed a new heart.
"I knew what was going on. She has something called myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, so for some reason the virus that she had, which was not COVID, thought her heart was a giant bacteria and started attacking it," Dr. Andrew Kao, a cardiologist at St. Luke's, said.
Kao and other doctors weren’t sure she would make it after she stopped breathing on her own, but five days later Gill was given another chance at life — a new heart.
“I just want other people to think about what they can do to give that life, if it's a kidney or donating blood or whatever they can do it’s a perfect way to help others," Gill said.
After 88 days in the hospital and living through a stroke, Gill's journey continues with routine checkups, but in less than a month, she hopes to be back in the classroom touching the hearts of her students.
"They are my kids and I love them and that’s where I need to be," Gill said.
Gill doesn't know who her new heart belonged to and hasn't been able to meet her donor's family, but hopes this will change in the future.
"I feel for the family who donated their loved ones heart to her," Dr. Kao said. "I can assure them if they're listening to the story, I can assure them she's making beautiful use of her heart."
