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 Linda Thomas
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Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

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Personality change after a heart transplant

March 29, 2012 @ 2:20 am (Updated: 9:49 am - 3/29/12 )

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney's heart transplant brought on jokes about whether the change of heart would affect his famously chilly demeanor. Does an individual's personality change after a transplant?

A Woodinville man is qualified to answer that question. He celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday with a heart about half his age.

RandyRandy Small had a heart attack at the age of 29, and double-bypass surgery two years later.

As he approached 40, doctors implanted a stent to keep an artery open, an internal pacemaker/defibrillator to keep his heart beating correctly and a mechanical device to take over for the left ventricle, which was only pumping 11 percent of the blood his body needed.

University of Washington Medical Center doctors also put him on a waiting list for a heart transplant.

Hour by hour, minute by minute he was waiting to die. Or, he was waiting for someone else to die.

"I was waiting for three months on this left ventricular assist device. It was noisy, it was painful, it was invasive, intrusive and thank God I could have one," says Small. "It kept me alive and allowed me to get stronger so that when that call came, I would be able to receive the heart, go through the surgery and go through it strong."

He remembers getting the call.

"May 24, 2004 at 3:24 p.m. they said, 'Randy we have a heart for you,'" says Small.

Who's heart was it? Anyone would want to know.

At the time of his transplant he was told his heart was coming from a young Alaskan male who was very athletic and a swimmer. Later he learned that his donor was a young female. Kate Kuhns, who died from a brain aneurysm. She was 22.

Kate's sudden passing left the family reeling with unanswered questions and overwhelming grief. At the time, Kate's father Lary said he was "mad at everybody."

"Those are times you go for a walk on the beach and just cry your eyes out. You want to understand and make sense of why something happened. I'm always thinking, There's got to be a reason.' Sometimes there just isn't," he told a Homer, Alaska reporter.

The families of organ donors often want to meet the recipients, which is entirely their choice, because they want to believe the person they love is still with them, in a way. Small has met, and bonded, with the Kuhns family.

"On the positive side, that means that person lives on and that's how the Kuhns feel. Kate lives on. Kate's legacy continues with me and the 11 other people who received organs and tissue from her," says Small. "We want to think that our loved ones live on and their life had more meaning, especially if they pass way too soon. On the recipient's side, I gotta admit, it's a little creepy thinking about it."

Creepy, he says, because it is "odd" to think that someone else might be controlling or influencing his actions and choices.

Small asked one of his best friends if his personality has changed since his heart transplant. She joked that he's "always been a jerk and is still a jerk" though now a "more grateful jerk."

"I live in a place of gratitude that few people ever reach. I'm grateful for today. I'm grateful for everything that happens, good and bad, because I'm here to experience it," he says.

An appreciation for life is the most common change in a person after a heart transplant, but some doctors say they've seen more dramatic affects. Gary Schwartz, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, says he has seen more than 70 transplant patients who displayed "eerie similarities to the heart's previous owner."

A couple of examples are a professional dancer who received the heart of an 18-year-old man. After the surgery, she reported craving beer and KFC, just as the donor had. A 7-year-old girl experienced terrifying nightmares about being killed after receiving the heart of a girl who had been murdered.

Schwartz says that's possible because of cellular memory. "Information and energy stored in the heart can be passed on to the recipient," he says.

Small is skeptical, based on his own experience and through working Lifecenter Northwest, coming in contact with hundreds of organ transplant patients.

There are about 112,000 people in the U.S. on a waiting list for organs and 2,100 in the Northwest.

"Every organ donor is a hero. I'm just an ordinary guy. I have an ordinary life, but I have that ordinary life back because someone chose to do something extraordinary," Small says. "I have the heart of a hero, and it's not the one I was born with."

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (24)


  • Add A Comment

  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Maybe they just appreciate LIFE more...
    March 29, 2012 7:25 am
    ....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    So we have information stored in our hearts huh?
    March 29, 2012 8:02 am
    News Chick you must feel that the public are a group of total idiots to print that type of goofball stuff.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • eddiewhite wrote...
    I feel bad for...
    March 29, 2012 8:05 am
    Linda having to spend her time writing this boring story. Tell the boss man to piss off next time Linda
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    I've made the case....
    March 29, 2012 8:43 am
    Very strongly in our building that blogs and stories should always be open for comments. A number of the blogs have switched to only allowing comments through Facebook. I've stood strong and said even when comments are idiotic, rude, hurtful, uninformed, etc. there's a value to them. Some of you make it so difficult for me to continue making that case. Fortunately, you're a small fraction of the people who read this blog.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    News Chick
    March 29, 2012 9:17 am
    Up your game some and perhaps you won't get comments that you feel are "idiotic,rude,hurtful,uninformed" but when you pass on nonsense you should expect objections from the viewer of that nonsense.This is Seattle not Podunk Iowa
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • basefare wrote...
    Personility Change
    March 29, 2012 8:33 am
    Who knows what's in the heart of man, or a woman.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • donjr wrote...
    Dick Cheney
    March 29, 2012 8:42 am
    It will be interesting to watch/observe Mr. Cheney's recovery. I suspect he will mellow a bit, maybe even start up with a Yogi for some meditation. It is happening already on twitter, @CheneysNewHeart
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Moondoggie wrote...
    Linda
    March 29, 2012 9:05 am
    To change your posting policy because of what mess101 posted would be a mistake. Nobody else cares what he writes, so why should you.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • TheNewsChick wrote...
    Moondoggie
    March 29, 2012 9:11 am
    I agree. No comment policy changes on this blog, as long as I have it! Comment away.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • PlaneJ wrote...
    Linda. . .
    March 29, 2012 9:16 am
    I'm not on Facebook, so I'm happy you allow comments here. I enjoy your blogs and hope you continue to write in spite of the hatefulness displayed by some. The case for cellular memory transfer is interesting and compelling. Thanks for sharing this story.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • messiah101 wrote...
    Plane J
    March 29, 2012 11:44 am
    Not a bit of hatefulness displayed by anyone that I can see.That is of course unless one feels that any messages that are at all critical of someones position are in fact "hateful".However when someone attempts to print unproven beliefs as some sort of fact it should be pointed out by someone.If only to keep the writer on their toes.The writer may believe in mumbo jumbo but I prefer to stay closer to proven beliefs.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • edbotdaltx wrote...
    Messiah 101
    January 25, 2013 7:21 am
    http://theophanes.hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-Memories-in-Organ-Transplant-Recipients
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Randy from Woodinville wrote...
    Gratitude and Arrogance
    March 29, 2012 11:12 am
    I'm very grateful to Linda for sharing my story as well as encouraging others to register to give the Gift of Life. As far as Cellular/Distributed Memory goes I don't believe that *I* have any memories from Kate but I am not so arrogant as to dismiss other people's experiences out of hand. Medical discoveries are happening all the time and it's at least possible that this is a real thing that happens to some people. It could also be completely false. The key is to keep an open, if skeptical, mind to the possibilities. And HPD5-0: You bet I do!! Now play nice.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • boeingmarcus wrote...
    Open comments rock!
    March 29, 2012 11:16 am
    Linda, I admire you for many reasons. You are clearly stronger than some of the "men" around your place. Radke, Dori and Rn and Don all shut down their blogs to comments because their egos couldn't take it. That you get on here and comment back and allow people to say whatever they want, pending MyNW's language policy, is admirable. Randy, best to you for a long life.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • williamohoh wrote...
    Cheney defines the term
    March 29, 2012 11:17 am
    "cold hearted Republican". The only empathy he has ever shown concerns gay marriage. That is because of his daughter. He is so cold hearted he only shows compassion when it has affected his own life.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • BeKwik wrote...
    Heart tissue is made of brain cells
    March 29, 2012 11:23 am
    So maybe that means our hearts have a memory.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Stevebo wrote...
    I don't comment as much anymore...
    March 29, 2012 12:38 pm
    But Linda, I do want to let you know that I've appreciated your blog for quite some time... and I deeply appreciate that you haven't switched to the "Facebook" format as many of the other hosts have done. I just simply refuse to post using Facebook (much of it due to the fact that I simply don't want to put my full name out there for some of the questionable people that frequent this board to have ahold of).

    It's a shame that there are some regular posters that have little other to say other than vileness and immaturity. I can only guess that they have their own issues they feel they need to compensate for on an internet forum.

    That being said, thanks Linda for sticking to your guns - I still enjoy your blog the most and I hope you can enjoy the "diamonds in the rough" with the good posts that are mixed in with the rubbish.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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