Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1162476
21 t m c » p u l s e | s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 9 YEARS Ted Adderly, 67 T wo years ago, Ted Adderly was fighting for his life and the chance to walk his beloved daughter, Teddi, down the aisle at her wedding. "I knew I had heart issues," Adderly recalled. "What I did not know was the extreme urgency that I was involved in. I had known about the congestive heart failure for a few years and I tried to live with it." But during a routine check-up, doctors realized his symptoms had wors- ened dramatically. "They rushed me to Memorial Hermann in the Texas Medical Center, did an evaluation and once again determined my situation was critical. They admitted me for testing," he said. Adderly's health began to decline soon after his daughter announced her engagement. "My daughter, Teddi, was the firstborn, dad's only girl, and she has grown up to be a very beautiful and intelligent young lady," Adderly said. "The goal was to have me walk her down the aisle and she asked the doctors how likely it was that I would be alive long enough." After months of languishing in the hospital, Adderly's already-serious condition took an even more momentous turn. "One afternoon, I was sitting in my hospital bed and the doctor came to check on my monitor and in the time he was standing there, he saw that my heart was about to stop," Adderly said. "A heart attack and heart failure are two different things—you can survive a heart attack, but the possibility of surviving heart failure is totally different. He said I had about 30 minutes left." The only chance for survival was a heart transplant. "I was blessed enough to get a heart in 21 minutes," Adderly said. "A doc- tor from the transplant team called and told me they had found me a heart and a kidney and they wanted to do the transplant immediately. At 1:21 p.m. I got the call, at 1:25 I was in the operating room and probably about 1:30, they were doing their work. After about six to eight hours of surgery, they put in the heart. They waited a day to put in the kidney, then two and a half days later, I woke up from a medically-induced coma and I had no clue that the surgery had been completed. I woke up in no pain and about three or four days after surgery, I was released to go home." Adderly walked his daughter down the aisle and their story was shared on TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress." In addition, he has welcomed two grand- children to the family. "That was two years ago and I have not looked back," Adderly said. "My heart is wonderful—my donor was 25 years old and I'm doing almost anything I want to. The only restriction I have is diet and alcohol in extreme modera- tion. I still enjoy a little red wine, but other than that, my life has not changed." — Britni R. McAshan PHOTOGRAPHY BY CODY DUTY Life expectancy in the United States has increased by more than 30 years over the past century—from an average of 47 years in 1900 to an average of 78 years today. Access to health care is a major reason for this shift.