By Ken Thoren

     I was in the hospital and as I stared up at the ceiling, I started to count the holes in the acoustical tiles. I'd do anything to forget I was scheduled for quadruple heart bypass in the morning.

     Failing to distract myself, I began a mental list of what I'd done to put everything in order; revised my will, organized my insurance papers, sorted my safety deposit box, and left instructions in a sealed envelope about what to do and whom to call just in case.

     In a little while, my wife and our four children were coming by. As far as I could see, all the "t's "had been crossed, all the "i's" dotted. So why did I feel so anxious? After all, it wasn't my first time at bat. I had been through a quintuple bypass ten years earlier and no problems. But that was then. Now, my entire body was one pulsating nerve end. Above the sound of my pounding heart, I heard a quiet knock at the door. A man with a broad, toothy smile and a bushy gray mustache stuck his head in. "Are you busy?" he asked jauntily. "I'm a Mended Heart." Before I had a chance to say, "You're a Mended what?" the man explained. "You haven't heard of Mended Hearts, have you?" he asked.

What is Mended Hearts?...
     "Well, we're a group of people who have had heart surgery. And some of us visit people like yourself who are facing a similar procedure. Anything you want to ask?" I remained silent.

     "I understand you're in for a "re-do," the man said. "I had a second bypass myself two years ago." This guy, full of energy, had been in my place just two years ago? Look at him, I said to myself. He came through okay. Maybe I will, too. Even before we started what would be a lengthy conversation, I was feeling a lot better.

     Forty years ago, open heart surgery was in its infancy. One of the first hospitals in this country to perform this procedure was Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. Four Patients there who had been surgically "mended" by Dr. Dwight E. Harken eventually met together, delighted they had been granted a second chance. These two women and two men - Doris Stillman, (who is said to have had the idea to meet in the first place), Elizabeth Wilkinson, Keith Otto, and Alphonse Santomassimo talked about how well they felt. They shared their plans and hopes and also spoke of their mended hearts.

     In time, they recognized that their mutual support had been a boon to their respective recoveries. They began to ask each other, "How can we help others?" With the encouragement of Dr. Harken and others, the four founded a nonprofit organization called Mended Hearts.

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