The Man With No Heart

I have a neighbor named Kristie. We live on different streets, and the back of her house faces the back of my house. She’s 42, a single mom with two kids. She’s been living in her house for almost a year, and yet until yesterday I had spoken to her only once, briefly. Yesterday she was mowing her back yard and I was running my string trimmer around the house and garage. I finished weed-eating at the same time she finished mowing. So I walked over to her and struck up a conversation. We talked a long time; the bright afternoon sky had given way to the darkness of night by the time we parted company. During our conversation I learned something that I found very interesting. She told me that her father, who lives “just down the road”, has an artificial heart. His name is Lennie Nugent, and he is one of only 60 people in the United States who have the heart. The FDA has not yet approved his artificial heart; it is still being tested and evaluated. Another 40 people had the heart but no longer have it because they have received transplants.

When I say artificial heart, I’m not talking about an LVAD (left ventricular assist device) that surgeons can implant into a patient’s chest to assist a weak heart. Lennie’s heart was in such poor condition that surgeons had to remove it. The heart he has now is a metal and plastic pump powered by air. His new heart is a temporary measure to keep him alive until doctors can transplant a human heart into his chest.

At first, just after he got his new artificial heart, Lennie was tethered by plastic tubes to a 450 pound machine in the hospital. Christie said they called the machine “Big Blue”. Big Blue is basically a specialized air pump that pumps air through plastic tubes to operate the artificial heart. But now her father is back home – tethered to a much smaller device that he can carry around like a handbag. It can run on battery power for two hours. However, a caregiver – usually his wife or Christie – must be with him at all times in case of trouble. There are various alarms on the device and someone near him must know how to respond. So Christie and Lennie’s wife received training, and the city’s EMS workers also received training. Lennie can leave home to attend church or dine out at one of several local restaurants that allow him to plug his air pump into an outlet near his table.

Someone recorded Lennie talking to a church group and posted the video on YouTube. In the video, Lennie talks about events leading to his getting the heart, and how having the heart has changed him and affected his family. If you’re interested in hearing Lennie’s story, you can watch him tell it below.

[Update: for more on Lennie’s story, go here.]

A Time of Butterflies and Sunflowers

Summer in central Virginia.

The Hooker Hookup Repudiation

I had just driven to the grocery store, parked my Jeep, and was walking away from it when I saw them: two hookers walking through the parking lot. One was white and one was light-skinned African-American. They were young - maybe in their early twenties. They were both very pretty. And they were both most definitely smokin' hot. How did I know for sure they were hookers, you might wonder. Partly their attire: both had tight white halter tops, very short shorts, and high heels. One was wearing what I call "stripper shoes" - those shoes with ultra-thick soles and very tall heels that Hollywood celebs tend to wear nowadays.

Still not convinced they were hookers? Ok, get this: As they strolled past, about 10 feet from me, the girl closest to me – the one wearing the stripper shoes – turned her head in my direction, smiled brightly, and said "Hello!" to me. I returned her hello, then turned and walked toward the store. Her hello had clinched it for me.

You see, I'm long past the age where women even notice I exist, much less smile and say hello. Unless, of course, there's money to be made by doing so. I guess working girls have to constantly be on the lookout for customers. But I wasn’t there to buy hot sex. To be sure, I was there to buy something hot – but in the store’s deli, not in the parking lot.