Forty four year old Kevin Johnson of Melbourne is a family man, a most dependable friend, and a heart disease survivor. Kevin and his wife Tammy along with their two children, Jill age 22 and Caleb age 8, have endured many hardships in the past two and a half years due to Kevin’s health. Kevin was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy during the summer of 2005. Cardiomyopathy means “disease of the heart muscle.” Cardiomyopathy damages the muscle tone of the heart and reduces its ability to pump blood to the rest of the body. About 500,000 Americans have cardimyopathy, and many do not even know they have the condition. Cardiomyopathy is a leading cause of heart failure and the most common reason for needing a heart transplant.
Kevin has a successful career with Bad Boy Mowers and Fireworks World. He is a 1985 Lyon College graduate, an avid athlete and a member of the Belview Baptist Church in Melbourne. Kevin began his career with Bad Boy Mowers owners Phil Pulley and Robert Foster in 1994. Kevin not only has his immediate family, but his Bad Boy family as well. Throughout difficult times his Bad Boy family has been with him every step of the way.
Kevin has had two heart transplants in the past two years, and is a testament that medical miracles do happen. In the face of being told that his days were numbered he has overcome the odds astonishing everyone even himself. In the summer of 2005 Johnson started having breathing difficulties…”I didn’t know what was wrong with me…I gained weight, developed pneumonia and was eventually diagnosed with cardiomyopathy after undergoing numerous tests for lung cancer, myeloma, lymphona and amyloid. Medically I should be dead. You are looking at a man who has been told he is going to die four times over the last 2 years…You are looking at a miracle of GOD today.”
In June 2006 Kevin’s blood pressure was down to 64/40. He could barely walk short distances with getting completely drained of energy. This is when he was told he would need a heart transplant and was placed on the transplant list. On Father’s Day, June 18, 2006, Kevin received the call that he would get his new heart. The average wait for a heart is 248 days for an O blood type. In 3 days Johnson received a new heart. It wasn’t long until Kevin could walk up to four miles a day and it seemed that he would be able to reconvene his normal life. However, in the next few months his heart began to fail despite countless treatments, medicines, and prayers. He then went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN where it was determined he would need to receive a second heart. In December 2006 while awaiting his second heart transplant it was determined Kevin had LCDD, a systemic disease involving several organs including the kidneys and the heart. This disease kept him off the transplant list and sent his family and friends into an emotional turmoil. After getting a second opinion at the Mayo Clinic, Johnson was put back on the transplant list in January 2007, and received his second heart transplant from a17 year old boy in February 2007.
Kevin’s problems did not end here. In March 2007 after much debate between the Mayo Clinic and Utah, a pathologist by the name of Dr. Elizabeth Hammond looked at Kevin’s original heart and the first transplanted heart and determined that in fact LCDD was present in both hearts. Kevin underwent weekly testing and monitoring in the months that followed. In June 2007 LCDD was confirmed through biopsy and Kevin was admitted to UAMS for a stem cell transplant. July and August 2007 were very painful months when Kevin’s stem cells were stimulated and removed, chemotherapy began, and stem cells were replaced. The stem cell procedure was successful but his heart again began to fail. In September 2007 Kevin was sent to the Texas Heart Institute in Houston where he would wait for a full artificial heart. However, the artificial heart he needed would not be approved by the Food and Drug Administration until October. Kevin was told to qualify for this artificial heart he must have a life expectancy of less than 30 days. Dr. Bogaev (Kevins cardiologist at THI) said, “I’ve never seen a heart that looks like yours get better, but I do believe in miracles.” That is when, Johnson said, “God stepped in. My heart just started getting better.”
In late October 2007 Kevin’s heart began to improve much to his and the Doctor’s surprise. By December 2007 his heart function had returned back to normal. Today Kevin takes rejection medicine every day and will continue to take it for the rest of his life. He takes approximately 20 pills per day, 600 per month, and 7200 per year.
Thanks to organ donations, prayers and miracles Kevin is able to get back to spending time with family and friends and enjoying hobbies such as golf, basketball, assisting missionaries (including but not limited to Jay Munoz), promoting organ donation and mowing with his Bad Boy Mower. Kevin is very appreciative and thankful to Bad Boy Mowers and to God that he is able to be back at work with his friends. “My main interest is to glorify God by thanking him for his mercy, for each day, each breath, and each heartbeat. You see the two men who gave their hearts for me are the true champions.”
Before After
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P721aVHycOE
