Ryan Miller

Ryan Miller didn't feel any different that December. A junior at Monroe High School and an avid soccer player, he was playing in an outdoor soccer tournament when he came home with a bad cold that turned into bronchitis. No big deal. The doctor said go home, rest and if you don't feel better in a few days give me a call. Two nights later Ryan came into his parent's bedroom complaining that he couldn't breathe. His mother, a nurse, suspected pneumonia. The next day they went and had xrays done of Ryan's chest. They had barely gotten home when the phone rang. The emergency room doctor had bad news. Not only did Ryan have pneumonia, he had an enlarged heart and needed to be seen by a pediatric cardiologist immediately.

Ryan was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center where he was diagnosed with hypertrophic non-compactive cardiomyopathy. This is probably one of the worst forms of the disease. Almost 100 athletes have died on the field from this undiagnosed condition. The plan was to put him on medication to improve his heart function and implant a defibrillator as added protection. The defibrillator was implanted around December 31. Unfortunately, Ryan's heart was too weak to handle the defibrillator and he went into cardiac arrest. He was put on a ventricular assist machine and went on the transplant list. The next month was a nightmare of complications and set backs. But on January 26 Ryan and his family received word that a donor heart had been located and was a match. He received his new heart on January 27 and went home on February 15.

According to Ryan when he looks back at it he thinks…. "it all happened so slow but so fast. It happened within a two-month time span but it felt like an eternity. And now I look back on it and everyday I think -- What happened? How did that happen to me? How am I here today? Living my life as if nothing changed? Minus the medication and avoiding infection - I'm normal. It's weird, it's a little weird for me."