Barbara S A Heart Transplant Gives New Hope

"It’s amazing; I can go up and down stairs without having to catch my breath. I started doing exercises two days after the surgery. My energy level came right back.”

An inherited heart problem had taken a terrible toll on Barbara Schempp’s family: her 66-year-old brother died of it in 2010 and her 6-year-old grandniece succumbed to dilated cardiomyopathy, a hereditary enlargement of the heart several years earlier.

But today, heart transplants and other advanced cardiac treatments at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center are saving people with serious disorders – including Barbara, who received a heart transplant in July 2014.

“I feel great,” says the lively 64-year-old. “It’s amazing; I can go up and down stairs without having to catch my breath. I started doing exercises two days after the surgery. My energy level came right back.”