Pat Oberkrom lives and breathes gardening. If she has a free moment, she''s in her garden toiling away. And these days, she''s breathing much easier, after surviving cancer, congestive heart failure (CHF) and a heart transplant.

Intensive chemotherapy from twice overcoming endometrial cancer stressed Pat''s heart. Diagnosed with CHF in 1995, she was not placed on a heart transplant waiting list because her cancer had only been in remission a short period of time.

In five years, CHF took its toll, and by July 2000, she was out of options. Weak, barely able to breathe and near death, her physicians sent her to Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Surgeons implanted a mechanical heart assist or LVAD, to help Pat''s failing heart muscle continue to beat. Called a “bridge to transplantation,” LVADs are implanted as a last resort in some patients who otherwise would not have been able to survive the wait for a donor heart, according to her cardiologist Joseph G. Rogers, MD.

“I was able to take a deep breath for the first time in years,” Pat recalls. “That December, I carried around a heavy battery pack that kept my heart pumping, and I put up a Christmas tree in every room of my house.”

The LVAD supported Pat''s ailing heart as she slowly gained strength. By March 2001, physicians declared Pat cancer free. She was then placed on the heart transplant waiting list. Amazingly, in only 10 days, a new heart was implanted by cardiac team surgeons, Michael Pasque, MD and Marc Moon, MD.

More than two years have passed and Pat is back in the garden, doing what she loves best. “It''s been so long since I''ve been able to breathe. Living with a new heart makes me realize God and the angels have been with me. I shouldn''t be here right now, but I am."