Heart transplant recipient, 70, pursues nursing degree to help others
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - For this week of Thanksgiving, a story about a lifetime learner inspiring others. In a First Alert 6 exclusive, a retired mechanic shares why he continues to challenge himself, rather than riding off into the sunset.
In the Midwest, motorcycle rides come with a shelf life. As Jerry Walters collides with the air he breathes, he knows how fragile life is.
“I have no thoughts other than my surroundings. Nature, the noise. The sound - the birds you hear,” Walters said. “I have peace with God when I’m riding. That’s when I make my peace.”
Heart device forces riding break
Walters retired as an auto mechanic and now works at Nebraska Medicine, helping patients understand heart devices.
“This is the left ventricle assist device,” he explained to the patients.
If the heart gets out of rhythm, the device sends a high-energy shock to the system. That’s why he quit riding his Harley for two years.
“I got home one time on a motorcycle from work. Thank God I just pulled into the garage, put the kick stand down and my ICD fired. Shocked me. An ICD shock would send me to the ground. I mean — I had been riding my motorcycle two minutes earlier, I was going 50 mph on the highway,” Walters said.
His first-hand knowledge led this patient to fill a gap, helping others navigate the medicine and mortality when your heart is nearing the end.
“He takes time to get to know them, to figure out what they’re anxious about, and share his own experiences with them so they understand there is another side,” said Christina Johnson, nurse manager of the Heart & Vascular unit.
The learning curve was about to skyrocket. He needed a new heart, and one soon became available.
“When you have things happen to you, you make it a point to learn everything you can about it,” Walters said.
When asked what went through his head when he got the call, Walters said, “I cried. I cried. It’s happiness — but then sadness knowing someone died in order for me to get it.”
Meeting the donor family
Transplant rules don’t allow the patient to contact the donor’s family for a year. But the donor’s family also wanted to meet Jerry.
Tonya and Tim’s son died in a crash in southern Iowa in August 2021. Brandon Hatfield was just 28 years old. Three days later, his heart beat inside Jerry.
“I was third in line for the heart. First individual had a fever and couldn’t be operated on. Second refused it. And then it came to me. I’m thinking — he crashed on a motorcycle and it was - God intervened on this one,” Walters said.
When asked if she worried that every time she saw Jerry, she would think of her son, Tonya Hatfield said, “The first time we met him, he was letting everyone listen to his heart — and I couldn’t do it.”
Jerry Walters considers Brandon’s family a part of his own.
Back to school at 69
When Tonya heard Jerry was going back to school, she said, “I thought he was crazy.”
Jerry Walters, who turned 70 in September, never stops learning. He enrolled in the nursing program at Metropolitan Community College. In anatomy class, he’s surrounded by youngsters.
“They see someone my age in here, and they wonder — what are you doing here?” Walters said.
“It’s been fun this quarter. One night, we talked about the cardiovascular system and did tests on his heart and compared it to younger individuals,” said MCC Anatomy Professor Sarah Jeffers.
Goal: transplant coordination team
When asked why he wanted to become an RN, Walters said, “I want to get on the transplant coordination team to see patients from the beginning.”
In order to be on the transplant floor, he needs to be a registered nurse.
“So how old will you be when you’re an RN?” he was asked.
“Seventy-two,” Walters replied.
“How does that sound?”
“Fine with me. Seventy-two is just a number. I feel like I’m 50,” he said.
In a way, Brandon Hatfield, the original owner of the heart, is still riding.
Walters works a couple of days a week at Nebraska Medicine while taking 19.5 credit hours this semester. Some of the classes are pharmacology, clinical terminology, and clinical and administrative procedures. He’s on track to graduate from nursing school in May 2027 and spread all that wisdom and personal experience with future heart transplant patients.
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