Waiting for a heart

Chris Ritter is playing the waiting game. Confined to a hospital bed at UAB, the 23-year-old is waiting to find out when he will get a new heart.

In March, Ritter went to the emergency room after experiencing shortness of breath for a week. Despite no history of heart problems, the Eagle Point resident was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlargement of the heart. While it was unusual that he did not experience pneumonia or another illness leading up to his diagnosis, Ritter said young patients with heart failure are more common than he initially thought.

“I was fine and didn’t feel like I was dying or anything like that,” Ritter said. “Some nurses told me there’s a surprising number of people that are here, that have been here, that are my age.”

Medications and rest did not solve the problem, and on July 6 he was hospitalized and subjected to two weeks of tests. Doctors have placed him on the high priority list for a heart transplant, which means Ritter could be at UAB for a few days or for weeks before doctors find a viable heart.

While he waits, Ritter has a catheter in his pulmonary artery and a number of machines to monitor his heart and help it function. Even while bedridden, the strain on his heart is obvious.

“Laying in bed right now, his heart rate is 118 [beats per minute], so his body constantly feels like he’s running. And it’s been that way for at least since March, I assume before that,” said his fiancee, Mallory Matthews.

The diagnosis and transplant have put a number of things in Ritter’s life on hold. He’ll be out of work for at least six months, and he and Matthews have indefinitely postponed the wedding they had planned for October. 

He won’t be able to ride motorcycles with friends or shoot targets with his grandfather until he’s completely healed and his immune system is repaired. Once the surgery happens, Ritter may also have to get rid of his pets, two dogs and two cats.

“Once he’s on transplant, he cannot live with indoor cats,” said Matthews, who owns Salon MK at the Colonnade and has been dating Ritter since high school. “When he gets [the] transplant, they’ll knock out his immune system on purpose just so that his body doesn’t reject it. And so that’s part of it, he has no immune system to fight that sort of stuff that normally would be able to.”

The recovery process, however, will be quicker than Ritter and Matthews expected when they first got the diagnosis. When they first arrived, another heart transplant patient was able to walk in independently and talk to them only a month after his surgery.

“From what I hear it’s not really much of a recovery process. I mean, you’re basically up and at them. They want you walking the same day that they do the surgery,” Ritter said. “I guess if the surgery itself goes well, recovery might not be as bad as I expected.”

Matthews said that without insurance, the heart transplant alone will cost $1 million. They aren’t sure how much of that cost will be covered, but their bills will be steep with the extended hospital stay and testing. Matthews and Ritter’s family have set up a GoFundMe page, titled “Chris Ritter’s medical bills,” for friends who want to contribute to the costs.

While he will need frequent lab tests and anti-rejection medications for the rest of his life, Ritter anticipates a mostly normal life within several months of the surgery. Based on what he’s heard from other transplant patients, he’s optimistic about what lies ahead.

“I’ve talked to a few people who said, ‘I didn’t know how bad I felt. It’s great feeling good again,’” Ritter said. “I am kind of excited to see that, to see what normal is.”