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A new heart for Taylor

East Rockaway teen undergoes transplant surgery

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“It’s a miracle,” said Jack Clarke. “It’s just a miracle.”

When his 19-year-old daughter, Taylor, was feeling weak last fall, shortly after starting her sophomore year at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, the Clarke family knew something was drastically wrong. Looking forward to achieving her dream of becoming a special education teacher, Taylor, a 2014 graduate of East Rockaway High School, began to feel so fatigued while walking to class that she had to take breaks, stopping to sit down.

At first, doctors thought that she had a vitamin deficiency. The fatigue continued, however, weakening her muscles so much that she had trouble walking. She was forced to take a medical leave from school, and back at home she met with various doctors and was subjected to a battery of tests.

Then, on Dec. 2, Taylor was rushed to the emergency room at South Nassau Communities Hospital with stroke-like symptoms, including paralysis, dementia and loss of speech. She was transferred to Long Island Jewish Hospital (now Northwell Health) in Manhasset, where, after some lifesaving procedures, she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy — her heart was working at only 5 percent capacity. She was immediately flown to Westchester Medical Center.

Taylor’s heart was giving out, and she needed a new one as soon as possible.

On Dec. 10, she had surgery to have a left ventricular assist device implanted in her chest to help her heart pump blood throughout her body. She was No. 1 on the regional list for a heart transplant, which covered a 1,200-mile radius. The waiting had begun.

Then, on April 19, the Clarkes got the call they’d been waiting for — a heart had become available for Taylor. “She’s waited four months,” her father said. “And they found a perfect match for her.”

Jack said that a doctor-and-nurse team was dispatched to retrieve the healthy heart, “somewhere from the other end of the state.” He added, “That young person who died helped save the lives of 16 other people. We can’t begin to say how thankful we are.”

Taylor was in surgery by 5:10 a.m. the next morning, and late that day, the family got the good news. “They said that her new heart was beating inside her,” Jack recalled.

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