Valentine's Day Special For Heart Recipient
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago man is the lucky recipient of not one, but two, heart transplants.
After a grueling months-long stay in the hospital, a Valentine's Day sendoff on Monday seemed only too fitting for Vaidas Paulis. CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports on the lifesaving gift he takes with him.
Paulis celebrated his release from the hospital by cutting into a heart-shaped cake, compliments of doctors and staff at Northwestern University Medical Center.
Four years after his first transplant surgery, Paulis's body ultimately rejected the first new heart. But since he's young (42) and otherwise healthy, he was a candidate for a second heart.
On the afternoon of Feb. 1 came word that it was on its way. But that was the day the blizzard began.
"All I did was watch the snow go down," Paulis said.
Everyone wondered: Would the heart make it in time?
"I just never lost hope, that's for sure. I'm just over the moon and thrilled that everything came out as well as it did," wife Jodi Mcnamara said.
Dr. Robert Gordon is grateful things eventually came together.
"It feels great," he said. "People that go into medicine, that's what we do it for."
Of all things, Paulis is most looking forward to a shower. He's been in intensive care for two months, where the best you get is a sponge bath.
In a couple of months, he'll write a letter to thank the family who's given him another chance at life.
