Local Heart recipient shares her experience with Organ Donor

A woman from Yuma has been blessed with another chance at life thanks to a 17-year-old girl. “It was a tough thing to go through because I didn’t want somebody to die for me to have a heart,” said Gail Shepard, a local who received a heart transplant in 2014. “That was the biggest thing in my process, but things happen and I’m living with it, and I’m blessed.” After suffering a major heart attack in 2011, Shepard needed a heart transplant to keep her alive. Little did she know, it would be a teenager whom she’s never met before that would give her a second chance at life.

“I went to the hospital and had to get bypass surgery, and the bottom of my heart blew out and I had an aneurysm.” In 2014 Shepard was put on on the donor list where she received her heart within a month. “The donor family whom I met is a wonderful family and I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

The donor is 17-year-old Karen Hernandez. She’s described as a fun, loving teenager who lived for adventure. It wasn’t until 2014 where she lost her life in a motorcycle accident.

“Someone hit her on her motorcycle,” said Shepard. “They left her laying there, that’s all they know right now. She loved motorcycles, was in her first year in college, loved animals and wanted to be a mortician. She was a really great person.” It was a tragedy that turned into a moment where her legacy would live on. “The donor family I have met. We were in the Fiesta Bowl, and it was a good cry session,” Shepard said. “It was just like I knew them, you know? It was meant to be.” It’s two hearts in a lifetime with one connection. Shepard says it was nice to have Karen’s mother to talk to. “She knew I had her little girl’s heart, and that’s what happened.” For more information on how to become an organ donor. Click here