[VIDEO] New Hartford Native Shares Her Heart Transplant Story

Just the idea of a heart transplant sounds like a scary ordeal. Cheryl Murdock shares her story of when she found out she needed a new heart and what happened moving forward.

The American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" Luncheon may have been last week, but we still have one more powerful and moving video to share with you. It's the story of a woman, originally from New Hartford, who was born with a hole in her heart. For some with holes in their hearts, they can still live a normal life and never have a problem. That wasn't the case for Cheryl Murdock.

In the video at the top of this page (keep some tissues handy if you watch it, it will make you cry), Cheryl says it was back in 2001 while she was on vacation that symptoms began appearing. She woke up and had a hard time moving her entire left side, and her speech sounded "gargled." She decided to go to outpatient care that night and asked for an EKG just to check on her heart...

After the results came back, they rushed her to the hospital. Cheryl says,

You know that was the first time that I was really, really scared... I was really afraid I might die.

This was a new symptom which made the doctors concerned. And this new symptom turned into a series of different issues. She ended up having a pacemaker put in, and the pacemaker was working 100-percent of the time... It was always running.

Shortly after that, she was told her heart was critically ill. She was told she had been put on the list... The list for a heart transplant. She was asked to keep her phone close by at all times in case a heart became available.

A heart did become available. Cheryl explains where she was when she got the news and the initial thoughts after hearing the news, and getting taken into surgery. These thoughts are best described in the video (at the top of this page), and we think you should definitely hear it from Cheryl herself.

The heart that's now in Cheryl belonged to a 14-year-old girl named Morgan...

Cheryl shares her story to bring awareness to all those who are on a waiting list to get a heart, and for those who don't end up getting one. She wants people to realize all that "Go Red for Women" and the American Heart Association has been doing when it comes to funding important research that makes transplants like this possible.

Although the Go Red for Women Luncheon is over, the "Go Red for Women" campaign is a year-round effort to help raise funds and awareness to women's heart health. And it's messages like this that are so important to hear.

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