A Family With A Lot Of Heart

By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 10, 2008

VALRICO - Tom and Stephanie Dye of Valrico tease each other that they now have heart-to-heart talks like no other father and daughter.

That's because the hearts beating in both of their chests once belonged to other people.

The Dyes are believed to be the only father and daughter in the country to receive heart transplants. For that reason, levity is mandatory for their family, said Judy Dye, Tom's wife and Stephanie's mother.

"It's the only way we could have gotten through the past four years," she said. "We just kept our sense of humor and laughed our way through the bad times. People thought we were crazy."

Those bad times began Memorial Day weekend 2004, when Judy, Stephanie and Stephanie's 12-year-old brother, Daniel, flew to California to visit Judy's sister.

"I was working around the house, and I started feeling bad," said Tom Dye, who had just turned 50. "I never got sick but was feeling really weak, and I went to the doctor."

A nurse routinely took his blood pressure only to discover she couldn't get a blood-pressure reading. His heart rate was so low that the machine couldn't detect a heartbeat.

He was rushed to Tampa General Hospital, where medical director and cardiologist Mark Weston diagnosed him with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart cannot pump blood efficiently because it is weakened and enlarged.

The news wasn't a complete surprise. One of seven children, Dye said his father died in 1995 at age 67, a sister died in 1999 at age 36, and another sister died in 2005 at age 53, all of heart disease. Although he doesn't know what type of heart disease claimed his father and younger sister, he said his older sister Pattie also had dilated cardiomyopathy.

At the time he was admitted to Tampa General, Dye wasn't aware that he was exactly where he needed to be - at one of the country's premier transplant hospitals for more than two decades.

In 1985, TGH became the first hospital in Florida to perform a heart transplant. Since then, more than 800 people have had heart transplants, making TGH the fifth busiest cardiac transplant center in the nation.

"They were discussing the different options for me and mentioned transplant," Dye said. "They made it sound like parking a car. It's so routine; they do it so often and so well, it lowers the whole terror factor."

But before taking that drastic step, Dye's doctors decided to try medication, an implantable defibrillator and cardiac "ablation," in which catheters send electrodes into the heart.

"They thought I could hold out for 21/2 years before I'd need a transplant," he said. "I lasted six months."

"It was Thanksgiving Day, and I saw Dad go into the bedroom and then kind of keel over and pass out," Daniel said.

His father doesn't remember much about the next few days as doctors waited for a suitable heart. Judy Dye recalls playing cards with a friend at the hospital to pass the time, and when she discovered she was awake at 4:30 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving, deciding to hit the early-bird Christmas sales.

Then, just before Tom Dye would become too weak to withstand a transplant, the heart of a 40-year-old male arrived at the hospital Saturday afternoon.

The surgery, headed by Cedric Sheffield, surgical director of heart and lung transplant programs at TGH, took 51/2 hours, and Tom Dye was back home Dec. 27.

"My recovery wasn't as quick as I would have liked," he said. "I was in bed for about a month and lost a lot of muscle tone, so I had to build that back up."

However, he was able to return to his job as a territory manager for Amerada Hess a year later.

"They were very good to me," he said. "The company was very supportive throughout my illness."

With a history of heart disease in the family, he decided to take no chances. He made appointments for Stephanie, who had just turned 16, and Daniel to receive electrocardiograms even though they had been healthy and involved in sports, dance and other activities.

Judy Dye recalls the look on Brandon pediatrician Pat Jeansonne's face when she saw the results of Stephanie's EKG in October 2005.

"She looked at Daniel's and saw no problem, and then she looked at Steph's and her expression changed," Judy Dye said.

"Everything happened so fast after that, it was all kind of surreal," Daniel said. "But the most important thing was we stayed positive and kept our humor."

Before Tom Dye's brush with death, the family hadn't attended church regularly. Suddenly, they felt a need for faith and the support of a spiritual community.

They attended a service at Grace Community United Methodist Church, which was meeting at Newsome High School. They knew they had found the right church when the first song sung was "Give Me a Heart Like Yours."

"It was one of those true tingle moments," Judy Dye said. "The church just took us under their wing and have taken care of us ever since. Their generosity has been unbelievable. We've been tremendously blessed."

Stephanie was diagnosed with a different type of heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscles turn to fat. It's a silent disease that causes outwardly healthy athletes to suddenly die while playing sports or performing other physical activities.

Such could have been the case with Stephanie, a member of the Newsome High School show choir.

"It wasn't coincidence that we had her tested when we did. I don't believe in coincidence," Judy Dye said. "It was divine intervention. We ended up exactly where we were supposed to be."

Weston tried Stephanie on different medications for the next 10 months. The teen had to limit her activities during her senior year, leave the show choir and take the elevator to her classes instead of the stairs. But she graduated with her class in May.

In June, Weston told the family she would need a transplant within six months. His prediction proved optimistic. She was placed on the transplant list Aug. 31, after turning 18, and received the heart of an 18-year-old boy Sept. 8. Eleven days later, she was home with her new heart, eager to return to normal life.

"That's one thing about Stephanie," her father said. "She never said, 'Why me?' She didn't have a big pity party. She was just determined to get better."

"Everybody has a mountain to climb," Stephanie said. "Yours may be different than mine. It doesn't mean that yours is any less difficult for you. I'd never wish something like this on anyone, much less twice. I'm just glad that if it had to happen to somebody, it happened to us."

And she's not about to take the gift she has received for granted. She eats right and works out at the gym to ensure her new heart stays healthy. And both she and her father have become advocates for the LifeLink Foundation, the nonprofit community service organization dedicated to increasing the number of organ and tissue transplants. The two will appear in LifeLink's 2009 calendar.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.