Jonathan Martin

Jonathan Martin

Transplant Type: Heart

Update: Jonathan received a transplant on December 29, 2019!

Jonathan Martin has a new lease on life. He was born with a congenital heart condition, a rare disorder called Periventricular Nodular Heterotopia. By the time he was five, he’d already undergone two open heart surgeries. Just before his 19th birthday, he had his mitral and aortic valves replaced at Johns Hopkins, along with an aortic root repair. When he was in his early 20’s, Jonathan began experiencing seizures. He worked with numerous cardiologists and neurologists over the years to help manage his heart and seizure conditions. Over the years since, he’s undergone multiple ablations, heart catheterizations, and two pacemaker/defibrillators. By last year, his condition had progressed to end-stage heart failure, and doctors said a heart transplant was critical to his survival. He was admitted to Duke and placed in Cardiac ICU with a balloon pump in his axillary artery while he waited a heart to become available. Thankfully, Jonathan received a heart transplant on December 29, 2019!

During this difficult time, Jonathan is grateful for the love and support of his wife, Kathie, and their family and friends. Jonathan and Kathie have an 18-year-old son, Ian, who is a high school senior. Over the years, Jonathan’s level of activity declined, making it difficult to be the active husband and father he longed to be. He looks forward to fully recovering from his transplant and being able to have fun with his family and enjoy an active life with his loved ones.

Jonathan’s passion is cooking, especially BBQ, and over the years he developed his own recipes. Good BBQ is a labor of love and is physically demanding—he hasn’t been able to use his smoker in more than a year. He looks forward to being able to smoke BBQ again in his backyard and hosting his family and friends. He used to enjoy working on his car, fixing things around his home, camping, traveling to Disney World, and taking walks with his wife and their dog, Jack—and he looks forward to being able to do those things again. Jonathan wants nothing more than to make a full recovery so he can feel like himself again, have more energy, and live his life to the fullest. He and his family are grateful to his donor and donor’s family for giving him a second chance at life.

The average heart transplant costs more than $1 million, and that’s only the beginning. Even with insurance, which will cover a portion of the transplant costs, he still faces significant expenses related to the surgery. For the rest of his life, he will need follow-up care and anti-rejection medications. Post-transplant medications are very expensive, and they’re as critical to his survival as the transplant itself.

Jonathan lives 218 miles from his transplant center, and has to stay nearby while he recovers, incurring substantial expenses for travel, food, and lodging. Kathie will be the primary caregiver for Jonathan, so neither will be employed for quite some time, further adding to their financial burdens.

You can help by making a tax-deductible donation to NFT in honor of Jonathan. If you'd prefer to send your gift by mail, please send it to the NFT South Carolina Transplant Fund, 3249 W Sarazen's Circle, Suite 100, Memphis, TN 38125. Please be sure to write "in honor of Jonathan Martin” on the memo line.

Thank you for your generosity!

Transplant Center: Duke