Big Sky Times

Ryan Stovall, recipient of a donation-after-circulatory-death (DCD) heart transplant, said after several severe heart issues nobody expected him to live another month while waiting for a heart on the transplant list.

“It was a definite shock. Out of nowhere, my heart had stopped pumping properly. Within a few hours, it quit because of a massive heart attack. My doctors didn't expect that I would last even another month on the transplant list," Stovall said, ABC Fox reported.

A Great Falls man’s heart helped save a life and made history. Michael Needham of Great Falls wasn’t registered as an organ donor, but his mother and sister made the decision on his behalf after they found out it was impossible to save him. After Stovall discovered his lungs were full of blood, that organ donation saved his life.

The Benefis organ donation team and LifeCenter Northwest teamed up for the transplant. Stovall is grateful for all Needham and his family, Benefis and the transplant team made possible for him and has since been recovering well.

According to Benefis, for decades, only donor hearts from patients who experienced brain death have been transplanted, because hearts from patients who experienced circulatory death were deemed less predictable in terms of their long-term viability. 

"This incredible advancement in technology and life-saving donation would not have been possible without the donor, his family and Benefis Health System," Mallory Wood, senior hospital development program manager at LifeCenter Northwest, said.