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Richard Corrente plays with his young cousin, Dakota, at BWH about a month prior to receiving a heart transplant.
Richard Corrente, 36, of Rehoboth, Mass., headed home this holiday season with a new heart.
Corrente is no stranger to hospitals or intense heart surgeries. Born with a congenital heart defect, he underwent open heart surgery as an infant and has been in and out of hospitals and doctors' offices since before he could walk. Throughout his life, he has sustained a close connection to an experienced and coordinated team of caregivers, which extended from his primary pediatric cardiologist in Providence to a combined program of care at Boston Children's Hospital and BWH. He knew that, eventually, he might even need a heart transplant.
In December 2012, Corrente began experiencing extreme fatigue, shortness of breath and other debilitating symptoms from his failing heart. After months of adjustments to his treatment regimen, he wasn't getting better. His clinical care team decided to evaluate him for a transplant. After passing the evaluation and being added to the waiting list, Corrente was admitted to BWH in late August 2013 to await a donor heart.
Early last month, thanks to a generous donor and donor family, he headed home-after more than three months in the hospital-with his new, transplanted heart.
"In my head, I knew I wanted to be home before the New Year," said Corrente. "Or even maybe by Christmas Eve. But the fact that I could go home as early as I did was fantastic."
He received the call that a donor heart had become available late in the evening on Nov. 18, four days before his birthday. The next morning, after his husband, best friend and two aunts had rushed to the hospital, Corrente was wheeled into the operating room to receive his new heart.
Now, Corrente hopes to return to work as a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island.
"I am so thankful for my donor," he said. "I want everyone to know the life-changing impact being an organ donor can have." Last year in the U.S., organ donors saved more than 28,000 lives.
To learn more about organ donation, visit the New England Organ Bank online.