Heart transplant recipient works to help others live full lives

Las Vergas Review Journal | Paul Harasim
RONDA CHURCHILL/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL Kelly Keith and her husband Simon hug outside their home. He is now the chief operating officer of Nevada Donor Network.

Go out and live a normal life.

It is what Dr. John Ham and other transplant physicians around the world tell individuals who are fortunate enough to receive a lifesaving organ.

Yet even Ham, the medical director for both the Nevada Donor Network and University Medical Center’s kidney transplantation program, admits he has a difficult time believing how normally Simon Keith â€" the 48-year-old chief operating officer of the donor network â€" has lived his life since he underwent a heart transplant in 1986.

“I marvel at it all the time,” Ham said. “Our goal is to restore normalcy as much as possible. Of course, what he has done, is doing, is amazing. We now know normalcy for transplant patients can mean far more than even we thought.”

Normalcy for Keith was leading the University of Nevada, Las Vegas soccer team to the NCAA tournament in 1987 and 1988, earning all conference honors, becoming the top selection in the Major Indoor Soccer League draft, and then playing professionally just three years after his surgery.
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______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor TODAY
In California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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