“It was the weirdest thing, the heart was really loud,” says Connor Randall, two-time heart transplant recipient, about hearing his third heart beat for the first time.

Randall came to speak in the Regis Jesuit Z Theatre Wednesday September 16th to share his story and provide some information on organ donation. The girls division WISH (Women in Science and Health) club, who hosts speakers at least one Wednesday every month, brought him in.

Randall was only six months old when he received his first heart transplant. He was born with Cardiomyopathy, in other words an underdeveloped heart. At three months, doctors were able to acknowledge the issue and he was put on the waiting list. Another three months passed and Connor got his new heart. The surgery went great, and being one of the first infant heart transplants in the country, his case was widely publicized.

When he was 12 years old, he woke up one morning and fainted. The doctors said he was probably dehydrated, but that didn’t seem the case when the exact same thing happened just a few days later. After an emergency checkup, doctors then found what’s called Coronary Artery Disease. His immune system had recognized the heart as a foreign object and had started to attack. A reversal was attempted but things were not looking good.

Life got miserable for Randall real quick. He was twelve years old and every day he would feel sicker and sicker. Connor was put back on the waiting list. But doctors were hesitant because of his condition and the transplant science of the time.

He waited thirteen of the longest months of his life. Towards the end of it, things were not looking good at all. He went through two false calls, where he was called in to the hospital because there was a potential match, but neither fell through.

“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” Randall describes, “being on the heart transplant waiting list.”

He eventually got his match, and just in time. The surgery was successful, and Randall felt great.

Now, Randall is living a perfectly normal life to date, and says,

“I have some pretty rad scars on my chest, but unless I’m like, at water world, people usually don’t know.”

Colorado is on the right track with organ donation. According to Donate Life Colorado, more than two-thirds of Coloradans have already made the “heroic decision” to register as organ, eye and tissue donors.

Colorado is one of the top in the nation.

One of the most important things with organ donation is to talk with your family about it. Even if you’re on the registry, your family can override the decision.

According to Randall and tens of thousands of other recipients, making sure you’re a registered organ donor is absolutely the right thing to do. You have the opportunity to save a life, you might as well. For more information visit www.donatelifecolorado.org.