KANSAS CITY, Mo. — 63-year-old Michael Sewell started running in 2004. He's run 27 marathons.
Running is his second love, with his wife, Jill, his first love. The Arkansas couple have been married for 38 years.
That love burned even brighter when Michael started having heart attacks in 2021.
He received heart stents and even an AED life vest.
The worst time for Sewell was last summer.
He went into refractory cardiac arrest, and his AED vest shocked him back to life at least 20 times.
"It’s soul crushing, you know, to watch the most important person in your life go through something so traumatic," Jill Sewell said.
Doctors in Arkansas told Jill they could only do so much to help her husband.
"Jill asked, 'If this was your father where would you take him?' And he (the doctor) said, 'Saint Luke’s in Kansas City,'" Michael said. "And Saint Luke’s saved my life."
Doctors put Michael in a coma and he was flown to Kansas City.
He was put on a heart transplant list. It took just 12 hours to find a donor.
Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute has been a leader in the region for heart transplants for 40 years.
Doctors have performed 1,040 life-saving heart transplants. Michael was the 1,030th.
"He’s one of the few that I’ve seen in my 30-year career who was transplanted so quickly and also from such a dire condition," said Dr. Andrew Kao, medical director of the Heart Transplant Program at the hospital.
Dr. Kao is Michael's cardiologist.
Kao said nothing could have prevented Michael's problems despite his healthy lifestyle and love for running.
"This is not something he had done to himself, it’s just a very unfortunate set of circumstances that all hit at the same time," Dr. Kao said.
Michael is recovering well six months after the surgery, Dr. Kao said.
Michael has more love to share, and that love is for the donor's family.
"I want to honor the family who gave me the heart and gave me life," Michael said. "Not a second goes by when you don’t think about what’s in you when you have someone else's heart."
And, of course, there's more than enough love for Jill, too.
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KSHB 41 reporter Caroline Hogan covers development across the Kansas City area. Share your story idea with Caroline.
