A Clydebank woman who was told she might not live past 35 has called her life-saving heart transplant the 'most amazing gift'.
Megan Geddes, 29, from Dalmuir, had a recurring chest infection when she was just 13 and was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
For the next five years she underwent constant tests before eventually a defibrillator fitted at the age of 17 and initially lived her life while her condition was carefully monitored.
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Speaking to Glasgow Live, Megan said: "I was 13 when I was first diagnosed. It started as a chest infection and I got referred to Yorkhill and was diagnosed there. Because it wasn’t such a known condition at that point and I was a child, nobody knew what to do. I got referred down to London and that's where I got looked after.
"I got a defibrillator fitted at 17; I had started work at 16 and continued to work until 4 years ago. I was still able to at that point - I always pushed myself to not let it define me. I loved getting up and going to work but it was definitely a struggle. Thankfully my manager was amazing and always looked after me."
However, around four years ago in 2019, Megan's condition worsened and it was confirmed at the Scottish National Advanced Heart Failure Service at the NHS Golden Jubilee that she was beginning to experience heart failure, leading to her being placed on the transplant list.
Last year, she was taken into hospital when her condition became unable to manage at home and left seven weeks later with a new heart.
"About four years ago it was getting quite bad," Megan explained. "The condition was not technically in my heart, but the heart failure first kicked in four years ago. I had lots of fluid retention and my legs were three times their normal size. I was working in the shipping docks and on my feet for 12 hours a day. It was too much, my body couldn ’t cope, so I had to give up my job.
"At the Jubilee, the assessment showed I was going into heart failure and getting quite bad. I got more tests done and they decide to put me on the non-urgent transplant list. But early last year, I got more unwell so I went into hospital for more tests and they agreed it was better to stay in the hospital. I was in the hospital for 10 days and then had to go home and check on my wee dog and make sure somebody looked after her. I went back into hospital six days later and that was me until I got transplant seven weeks later."
Megan is approaching a milestone one year since her transplant and looked back on her experience in hospital, crediting the staff for their compassion for making the experience a positive one.
"A lot of people ask me what it was like - you’re in hospital, don’t want to be, it can be depressing. But I found it quite relaxing, it was honestly because of the staff - they make it so nice for you that it sort of takes your mind off it.
"You do have moments where you do think ‘oh God, is this it?’ And it turns out to be nothing. They’re very good at how they tell you. They got told through the night but didn’t wake me up until the morning. You’re not getting interrupted if it falls through. They’re very well trained and very compassionate. So it was a relatively easy journey for me.
"The only downfall was I got an infection, that was so bad. I was so unwell and it was horrible. It lasted six days and during that process, I was suspended off the list because you can’t get transplanted if you have an infection. That was quite hard because I really just wanted to go home. That was my toughest time.
"But in general, I was more stressed out about my dog to be honest. That made me not think about what was happening. Anytime someone came to see me and I was crying, they thought it was because I was upset for myself and it was actually my dog, which I think helped my mindset. I didn’t have to sit every day and think ‘what if’ and I think that was a major help."
Megan was first informed that a suitable transplant had been made available early in the morning, and by that evening, she had had the surgery.
She said: "I was told early in the morning, maybe about 5.30am, I got taken down to theatre around 12.45pm and then it was a few hours after that I had the surgery.
"I’d already had an offer previously and that fell through, but it didn’t really phase me at that point because I’d just come round from the infection. But because I’d had that first offer, for the second I was not getting my hopes up too much.
"I got further through the process the second time. Then the anaesthetist came and spoke to me and said what was happening and it was suddenly more real. I got quite nervous then, it was like adrenaline - butterflies in my stomach and everything.
"The staff made it so comfortable for me. The only time I got properly scared was when I was doing the countdown part, but that wasn’t me even going to sleep - the doctor suddenly said ‘actually not just yet’ and I was joking ‘did you just say that?’ But thankfully it still went ahead that day."
In the wake of receiving her transplant, Megan spoke of her gratitude to her donor and their family, adding it is 'amazing that people can save each other', adding that their legacy is 'an amazing gift'.
"It’s such an amazing feeling for loads of different reasons," she said. "It’s amazing how the process happens - that somebody’s organs can keep you alive and amazing that people can save each other.
"If they could be aware of the influence they’ve had on my life, and their family, they should be so so proud that they’ve been able to help people. If anybody could leave a legacy, I think that’s the most amazing gift you could leave. I really hope we can get more donors, as many people to sign up as possible."
Now that she has been given a second chance at life, Megan is determined to appreciate every moment and has sheets of paper full of her ambitions for the future.
She is due to begin training for a new career as a bus driver and has plans to become a paramedic in the future after having such a positive experience herself.
She said: "I do try to be positive but I’m still the same as everybody. I think now I’ve had the transplant, I try and push myself as much as I can because I think ‘this donor and the family have agreed to save my life’. It would be a waste to sit and be miserable. I try my hardest to push myself and get on with the day to make worthwhile.
"I’ve got about three A4 sheets of paper of things I want to do. A lot of them are like travelling, being able to go on big walks I wouldn’t have been able to do, and going back to work. I loved work but now I’m going down a different career path, I’m going to be a bus driver. I started my training in May.
"My main one in the next five years, I want to become a paramedic. It was when I was in the hospital, every morning the doctors come around and check on you and sometimes the paramedics come in as well.
"One of the paramedics specifically was someone I had dealt with a few time and it was emotional because there’s so many different stages to your condition and they were part of it as well. If I could do that and help other people, and have that compassion and hopefully make a difference to somebody and give back to the NHS it’ll never make up for what they did but it’s a start."
Between 2022 and 2023, a record number of adult heart transplants were performed at NHS Golden Jubilee in 2022-23, with 40 life-saving operations performed.
Innovation in technique and advancements in technology, such as an organ care system to allow surgeons to transplant hearts from donors who die after circulatory death, have increased the availability of hearts for transplant and have also boosted the success rate which is currently at 95% for 90-day survival.
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