When Joyce Grantham got on an air ambulance on Aug. 3, 1999, she was unsure if she would ever return home.
Joyce was on the way to Vancouver to receive a heart transplant three years after a viral infection caused her own heart to begin to fail. Her condition had been getting worse for months and by the time she got the transplant she was unable to walk any further than the end of her driveway. At the time, she was so weak, she felt she could hang on for one more month, at most.
"When we flew out of Prince George and I was looking down - and it was a gorgeous day, I could see everything - and I thought, 'Am I going to get back here? Am I ever going to see Prince George again?' " she said.
Now 14 years later, Joyce is one of the many transplant success stories in B.C. She's healthy, active and feels like she's been given a second chance at life.
Over the years, she's watched her grandchildren grow up, graduate from university and get married. She's also celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband and former Prince George city councillor Don.
"These are the things you would miss if someone hadn't given you a heart," she said.
On Dec. 17, Joyce will visit UHNBC to deliver popcorn to staff as way to say thanks for all they do for transplant patients like herself. Now in its 22nd year, Operation Popcorn is a province-wide program to recognize those people instrumental in giving patients like Joyce an opportunity to extend their lives.
Joyce, who used to work at UHNBC before getting sick, started taking part in Operation Popcorn a couple years after she received her new heart and keeps going back.
"It's a thank you to the staff for what they do for the people that are having these problems," she said. "I don't envy the nursing staff who have to say to somebody [who has just lost a relative], 'is your loved one on a donor list?' What an awful decision to make when your family member is laying there dying."
Joyce also uses the annual popcorn day to thank the staff who saved her life before she got her new heart.
Prior to having her transplant, Joyce was in and out of emergency with congestive heart failure as a result of her condition. On one of those visits to UHNBC, she was raced to the intensive care unit where she came so close to dying that she had an out-of-body experience. She remembered looking around the room and seeing her family around her bedside and wondered why they were there on a weekday, when they all should have been at work.
"It was nice, it was pleasant, I was kind of floating around," she said. "It was very peaceful and very relaxing. Then I saw my two daughters and my son-in-law standing there and Don was hanging onto my hand and I thought, 'I've got to get out of here, I've got to get out of this hospital. I have things to do.' "
At first Joyce had been worried that sharing her near-death experience would draw a skeptical reaction, but after reading about other people who have had similar recollections when on the brink of death, she's willing to tell others what happened and explain why she's no longer afraid of dying.
In some ways, Joyce said her life has changed since her transplant. She's on a strict low sodium, low fat, low potassium diet, for instance, but at other times she forgets she's even been given a new heart. She now feels she's close to where she was before she got sick in the first place, but it's taken time to get to that point.
"At first I figured by three months I'll feel great, then I thought by six months," she said. "By a year you feel pretty good, but really I think it takes a good two years before you feel really, totally good."
At first Joyce was taking 50 pills a day - Don joked that she needed a tackle box to keep them organized - but now she's down to about 15. She's so used to the medication that she doesn't notice any side effects.
Among the concerns for patients after a heart transplant are kidney disease, diabetes and picking up diseases due to having a compromised immune system. Joyce feels fortunate to have avoided many of those complications, but she's also cautious about what she eats and where she goes.
Less than two years after her surgery, the Granthams went on a European cruise, which included her cardiologist and other patients with heart conditions. Since then, the couple has been back to Europe once and have traveled to other places, but her doctors have told her not to visit some countries, including Mexico, due to the risk of picking up infectious diseases.
Like all heart transplant recipients, Joyce doesn't know who the donor is, but believes she got the heart of a 25-year-old. She wrote the donor family an anonymous letter shortly after receiving her heart, but one of the most difficult experiences post-transplant was meeting some donor families.
A few months after her transplant, she attended a non-denominational service for transplant recipients and families of deceased donors.
"I was quite excited to go, but when I got there it was really upsetting to me because on the altar they had pictures, all the donor families had put pictures of their loved ones up there and these are all young people," she said. "You're thinking, 'oh my God, is that one? Is it that one?"
Now she rarely thinks about how the heart she has now became available for transplant but remains thankful to the donor and the family for considering donation.
A few years after her transplant, Joyce had the chance to see her old heart, which has been kept for teaching purposes at the hospital due to the unique nature of her condition. She's grateful researchers and students can learn from her experience and perhaps help other people before the condition gets to a point where a transplant is required.
Now 14 years after her transplant, Joyce has shown no signs of slowing down. She still has many places she wants to visit and many family milestones she wants to witness.
"When I had [my transplant], the life expectancy was 10 years. When I hit the 10-year mark, they said, 'We don't know what the future brings for you,' " she said. "Now [the life expectancy is] 20-years, and my goal is to go 30 or more - I want to make some records if I can."
