Heart Recipient

Jack Puccio

It’s not often you find heart transplant recipients competing in power lifting championships. Meet Jack Puccio from Rochester, N.Y.

In 2002, he won first place in his division in the national and state power lifting championship, set the record for bench press and dead lift, and then proceeded to win the World Championship in the same the 68- to 74-year-old category.

But the titles weren’t always easy to achieve. Puccio overcame many obstacles, and he is here today thanks to his faith and the generosity of his donor family.

A retired police officer, Puccio has been athletic all his life. When he and his wife, Glenna, moved to Dallas, he started to work for Bally’s Total Fitness, a national health and fitness club, where he has worked on and off for the last 12 years, seven of those as a trainer.

Puccio first detected a problem while working out in 1994.

"While walking the treadmill, I had indigestion, and within a couple of days, the indigestion had progressed along with pressure under the sternum," Puccio explained. A visit to the doctor and an EKG test concluded that Puccio had an abnormality with his heart. His doctor referred him to Irving Medical Center (now Baylor Medical Center at Irving), where specialists performed a catheterization. With medication and exercise, his possible need for a heart transplant was abated.

In March 1999, though, Puccio was taken to the hospital after a dizzy spell, and his cardiologist suggested it was time to think about a heart transplant.

"I was still taken back by this news since I had been healthy all of my life,” he said. During routine physicals, the only indication anything was wrong was his heart's slightly enlarged size, which is perfectly normal for some athletes. Puccio never thought he would need a heart transplant, especially since he could bench press 500 pounds.

Doctors transported Puccio to Columbia Hospital at Medical City Dallas, where he was evaluated and placed on the waiting list.

"I was initially listed as Status 2, waiting at home, but during my first cardiac rehab session I almost passed out,” he said. After this incident, Puccio did not leave the hospital for nearly six months, and his status was increased to just under 1B.

With the enlargement of his chest cavity delaying his transplant, Puccio waited an additional two months at home until he received the phone call that would change his life. On Sep. 29, 1999, surgeons at Columbia Hospital at Medical City Dallas performed his heart transplant. Due to the generous gift of an 18-year-old Hispanic male, this father of eight and grandfather to 19 gained a second chance at life and currently is training for a weight lifting competition scheduled for next year.

Puccio shares his experiences with others by volunteering with Southwest Texas Alliance in Dallas. He speaks to students on organ donation and discusses the issue with OR and ICU nurses, as well as with chaplains at the local hospital. Puccio also tells his story to other heart transplant candidates waiting in the hospital for transplant.

"Most candidates can get depressed," he said. "I encourage them to persevere. If they take their medication and exercise, it gives them more control. The heart’s a muscle, and it has to be worked.

"I have a second chance in life," he added, "and I live for today and every day I thank God and the donor’s family for giving me another one."