Gift of Life: Heart, liver transplant enable man to see fatherhood, help youth

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Register as a Gift of Life donor HERE.

Throughout the 6abc Gift of Life Registration-thon, you'll meet some of those whose lives have been changed by organ donation.

Keath Gerald loves being a new dad. He didn't think he'd live to see it. Back in college, Keath suddenly got sick.

"I couldn't walk to class without getting dizzy or light-headed," he says.

Doctors said a virus attacked his heart muscle, causing congestive heart failure.

"My heart, the left side was paralyzed and the right side was pumping at 32%," he says.

College was impossible during what Keath calls "the worst time" of his life.

"In and out of the hospital 37 times. IV's in my arm," Keath says. "A nurse whispered in my ear once and said. 'You know, how long have you been using?' He thought I was a heroin addict because of all the IV marks in my arm. I was not planning to make it past 25 years old."

He was originally due to be listed for transplant at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Jersey, but they couldn't do the liver transplant. So, Keath came to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

An implanted defibrillator - and faith - kept his failing heart and liver going. At times, that faith was tested.

"Everyone at church said, your gift is coming, your blessing is coming. And I was like, okay, yeah, that's great. But you really don't know how this works," Keath says.

But one service felt different.

"All the elders in my church placed hands on me and prayed for me. And for the first time, I had an out-of-body experience," Keath says.

His second chance came 29 days after going into the hospital, with a middle-of-the-night call.

"They said we had the perfect heart, perfect liver for you. Do you want it? YEAH, of course, of course!" he says.

But it was a bittersweet moment.

"Someone passed away, someone that is a hero in my eyes, a hero to my family, my friends," he says.

"Transplantation, if you think about it in medicine, is one of the few things that relies on the kindness of a stranger," says Rick Hasz, Gift of Life's CEO.

Hasz says organ donation is about neighbors helping neighbors, something Philadelphians understand.

"Our community has provided more organ donors and more transplants than any other community," he says.

Ten years later, with bachelor's and master's degrees, Keath now counsels students headed toward college, and he honors his donor through the Donor Dash and Transplant Games.

"I played basketball, I played volleyball, I was a swimmer, I did track, I did triathlon," he says. "It's kind of a testimony of what my donor did for me, right? I wasn't able to walk around the block without getting dizzy or lightheaded. It's just a testimony to what God and my donor has done for me."

He also talks to whoever he can about organ donation, and the others who benefited from his donor's kidneys, lungs, and other tissue.

Register as a Gift of Life donor HERE.