Heart transplant recipient dies just hours after giving birth
Grateful for a second chance, mother planned to pass that gift on by donating organs
Not long after Megan Johnson gave birth, her husband posted a picture on social media, welcoming their daughter into the world.
Years earlier, Johnson had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and given a new heart and another chance to live. Her husband, Nathan, announced early Tuesday on Instagram that “her heart worked perfectly” during the delivery, and their daughter, Eilee Kate, “introduced herself quickly and smooth. I am a rich man!!!”
For the next six hours, the Johnsons loved their newborn. “They were so excited, they couldn’t sleep, so they spent time with the baby and talked all morning,” said Josh Wilson, a friend of Nathan’s.
Megan gave birth about 2:40 a.m. Tuesday and, for the next several hours, “held, fed, and burped little Eilee,” Wilson, Nathan’s bandmate, wrote on the GoFundMe crowdfunding page.
Then Megan started experiencing complications and, by late morning, she had died.
Wilson said Nathan took his daughter home Wednesday and has been “up and down,” but surrounded by family members and close friends.
Wilson said he started the GoFundMe page, which had raised more than $400,000 by Sunday evening, to get Nathan, a Christian music artist, “off the road. To buy him some time.”
It’s not yet clear what led to Megan’s death. The American Heart Association warns that women who have had heart transplants could develop complications during pregnancy; for example, immunosuppressive medications could pose a risk to an unborn child and, after the child is born, there is a greater risk of rejection for the mother.
In 2002, Megan, then 15, was a student and athlete at North County Christian School near her home in Ferguson, Mo., according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She played basketball, volleyball and soccer until she unexpectedly lost her endurance, according to news reports and a blog post that appeared to be written by her father.
The diagnosis was myocarditis, an inflammation caused by a virus that can lead to heart failure. Johnson was given medications and strict orders to give up sports, she said, but she survived.
More than seven years, later Megan’s symptoms returned and she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, according to the blog post. In 2010, the then-23-year-old underwent a heart transplant at BarnesJewish Hospital in St. Louis, the newspaper reported.
“I am extremely grateful for her gift. However, I am so saddened for the family that lost their dear loved one. I ache knowing that I am here and she is not,” she later wrote on a blog.
“I truly hope one day her family will know how much I appreciate her/ their special gift. I can never repay. I am forever grateful. Thank you.”
The year after her transplant, she married Nathan and moved to Nashville, she wrote online.
Over the years, Megan had spoken passionately and publicly — both on her blog and to local news media — about organ donation, telling the Post-Dispatch a year after her transplant, “I never thought about being an organ donor until I needed one. My family didn’t think about it until they had a daughter who needed it.
“That’s a huge thing in my life,” she added. “It can save lives. It saved mine. It’s the gift of life.”
Wilson, the family friend, said Megan’s organs are going to more than 50 recipients.
“They couldn’t sleep, so they spent time with the baby and talked all morning.”
JOSH WILSON FAMILY FRIEND