DETROIT – Three is the lucky number for a woman who is the picture of health after her third organ transplant.
Related: April is National Donate Life Month and Michigan needs donors
For Sherry Johnson, it was a waiting game for a bullet she thought she had dodged. Her family has a history of catastrophic heart problems.
“Back when I was 35 years old I had two young kids, they were five and three, and I had this fear of whether or not I was going to be able to see them grow up,” Johnson recalled.
In 1981, her mother Sharon Jahns made news across the nation as the first successful heart transplant patient for the Mayo Clinic. Using cutting-edge technology, three people received heart transplants in the Mayo Clinic’s pilot program that year.
Jahns was the only one to survive. She lived a year and it was considered a successful operation.
“She paved the way for many transplant patients with the anti-rejection meds and all that,” Johnson said. “They were still trying to find out what worked and what didn’t work.”
Sherry Johnson’s brother, Jimmy, was diagnosed with the same heart condition. He received a heart transplant and lived 10 more years.
“He was 25 and he also was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, which is basically the heart and muscle just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and then not being able to pump efficiently,” Johnson recalled.
And then it was Sherry’s turn for a transplant. Her heart lasted 16 years. She was able to raise her young children until they were teenagers, but in 2023, her heart started to fail. Sherry entered the hospital and was told that without a heart, she would not leave alive.
While waiting for a transplant, her other organs started to fail. After more than 70 days in the ICU, she needed a kidney.
“Now multiple things were failing,” Johnson recalled. “It just got very scary for me.”
Incredibly, she was a match for a single donor’s heart and kidney.
“I just knew my life was going to be different it was going to be great and I had a future because I could feel the Life coming back to me even in that moment,” Johnson said. “Just with the heat, the simple warmth of blood rushing through your body. It was just it was amazing.”
She said she’s concerned about the potential health issues her children could face down the line and if they will need to wait for an organ transplant.
“I mean, there are 2,500 people in Michigan waiting right now for an organ and so there are a lot of people waiting,” Johnson said. “I’m just lucky. Three times.”
Six months later, she is thriving and the local heartthrob of the pickleball circuit in Farmington.
“My donors gave me life a life I would not have had without them and so my way of honoring them is to live my life to the fullest,” Johnson said.
Read: How do I sign up to become an organ and tissue donor?
People can register to donate organs, tissue and eyes at the end of their life to someone in need of a transplant. They can also explore a “living donation” -- or giving a kidney or part of their liver to someone in need while both individuals are living.
Michiganders can enroll using the Online Michigan Organ Donor Registry or sign up for organ donation when renewing or requesting a replacement license or state ID card.
Gift of Life Michigan, an organization that facilitates organ and tissue donations, works with the Michigan Secretary of State to grow and maintain the registry, you can click here to learn more and to sign up to become a donor.