Rotary welcomes heart transplant recipient

Courier News | Romi Herron
Dundee Township Rotary Club members listen to heart transplant recipient Judy Meikle Tuesday at Emmett's Ale House in West Dundee. Meikle told her story about the gift of a heart and the importance of organ donations. Meikle, 56, has a transplanted heart from an Army Ranger who died after fighting to save his comrades in Afghanistan. "He saved people when he was wounded and saved even more people when he died; how many people can say that?" she said. September 18, 2012 | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media

Inside Judy Meikle’s chest beats the heart of Corporal Benjamin S. Kopp, a young U.S. Army Ranger who died from combat wounds suffered in Afghanistan. The Winnetka resident recipient spoke recently about her gratitude and the importance of organ donation at a meeting of the Dundee Township Rotary Club meeting at Emmett’s Ale House.

“I’m the recipient of a miracle,” said Meikle. “Jill (Stephenson, Kopp’s mother) wakes up every day knowing his heart is beating for me, his eyes are seeing for someone else, and his kidney and liver are the reason other people are living too.”

A fairly active woman in her mid fifties, Meikle said she’d always been healthy, so a five-day stay in the hospital with no diagnosis was her first exposure to overnight care.

“When you’re in the hospital and you have tests, and you hear the technician go, ‘Uh-oh,’ you know something is wrong,” said Meikle, explaining the day she was then transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston.

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