Two weeks after I turned 30, I was healthy, active, and busy with my job as an advertising producer. I was feeling good, with no signs of the heart condition I had experienced three years earlier—I had even just gone to a HIIT bootcamp class. Days later, I was at NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion with advanced stage heart failure.
A month after that, I had a lifesaving heart transplant.
 Going back to 2021, I had just been diagnosed with myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. I was 27 at the time and I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. I ended up being on medication for about two years before I was able to wean off of the medications and continue living my life.
But shortly after my 30th birthday, I suddenly got really sick with what I assumed was a terrible strain of the flu. I went to urgent care in Greenpoint, my neighborhood in Brooklyn, and after seeing my EKG and noting my past history of myocarditis, the nurse practitioner strongly recommended we call an ambulance. When giving me a choice of what hospital to go to, they said NYU Langone across the bridge would be the best option. I look back at this moment often and think about what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to NYU Langone. This moment was a pivotal moment in my health journey, at a point where I didn’t realize the stakes were so high.
I ended up in the ER at NYU Langone, and I thought that if this was myocarditis again, I would go back on my previous medications and stay in the hospital for a couple of days, similar to last time. Sure enough, it was myocarditis, and I was admitted to the cardiac ICU, but I only got worse from there. This time around, my symptoms progressed to an advanced stage of heart failure very quickly.
Over the next month at Kimmel Pavilion, my team of doctors worked through different treatments, but it soon became clear that the only option was a transplant. I was in critical condition and on various life support devices, including ECMO, the Impella, and the RVAD.
When I found out I needed a transplant, I had just been extubated after recovering from cardiac arrest. With my dad and twin sister in the room, my mom came to my bedside to share the update. She held my hand and told me, “Liv, you’re going to need a heart transplant.” In that moment, I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of calm and acceptance. Maybe it was the sedation, maybe it was because my body was exhausted from fighting so hard to stay alive the last couple of weeks, but I think mostly it was because there was no other option for me at that point. If a transplant would give me the chance to live, I would gratefully take any opportunity to do just that.
I was listed for the transplant as a Status 1 recipient, the highest level of medical priority. But after developing pneumonia, I became so sick that I had to be taken off the list. It was an incredibly difficult moment for my family—but the reality was that I wasn’t strong enough to survive the procedure.
The team at NYU Langone told my family they would do everything they could to get me strong enough to be listed again. I don’t know how I got better, but I did—and I was put back on the transplant list.
Two weeks later, I was woken up at 1 a.m. by my attending NP, who told me that they had found a possible match and my surgery would be scheduled for later that day. At the time, it had felt like such a long wait. Every day I wondered whether it would be my last or if I would be given a second chance to live. I am so incredibly grateful that I was given that chance. I received my transplant on February 17, 2024, less than a month from when I was first admitted.
Throughout it all, I received incredible care from the nurses, NPs, and doctors. I cannot speak highly enough of the team on KP13, the cardiac ICU at Kimmel Pavilion. Dr. Nader Moazami and Dr. Alex Reyentovich were deeply involved in my care from the very beginning, and I can confidently say they saved my life. Dr. Reyentovich and his team continue to oversee my transplant care as an outpatient, which has meant so much to me and my family.
The nurses were some of the best people I met. They’d come in and talk about all the things I would normally talk about with my friends. It’s funny to think about— that I was on life support but still chatting with them about my favorite Bravo shows or books that we were reading. One of my NPs even gave me a book in the fantasy series Fourth Wing, which I was reading right up until my transplant surgery. It was such a strange blending of worlds—I was in critical condition, and yet the NPs, nurses, and doctors on KP13 made sure that I felt a sense of normalcy in a situation that was the furthest thing from normal.
From the moment I arrived at NYU Langone, there was never a time where my family or I considered going elsewhere. I feel so very fortunate for all the care I received during my time as an in-patient, and I still feel that now as an outpatient. When I have my follow-ups with my transplant team, the second question after “How have you been feeling?” is always “How is your family?” The level of care and kindness not just for my health and personal well-being but also my family’s is why I continue with NYU Langone.
After everything I went through, I decided I would make a personal donation to NYU Langone every year on the anniversary of my transplant. My family also supports the NYU Langone Transplant Institute and will continue to support it for many years to come.
Currently, my family’s donations help provide lodging for loved ones of transplant patients waiting for a heart. I was lucky that my family could stay nearby at my apartment or a hotel, but not everyone has that support. Having my family there is what got me through the worst of it.
Now that two years have passed since my transplant, I’ve been reflecting on everything that has happened—and how lucky I am to have my donor heart. There have been some ups and downs through the process, and not everything has been completely straightforward, but my family, my care team, and I have navigated through it together.
I’m back working in advertising, logging long hours on commercial shoots, and enjoying my life in Greenpoint. I recently had my two-year follow-up, and things are looking stable, which is really encouraging. That first year and a half was tough, but I’m feeling good and finally like myself again. I’ve even returned to the HIIT classes I took pre-transplant!
I think often about my donor and their family, who made this second chance possible. Because of them and the care I received, I get to have a second chance at living a full, beautiful life. And that’s something I will always be grateful for.