SIMI VALLEY : Man Celebrates First Year With Transplanted Heart

One year ago, Calvin W. (Joe) Hunsinger’s beeper woke him up at 7 a.m. Instead of being annoyed, the Simi Valley resident welcomed the noise, telling his wife, “Luana, the time is here!”

After waiting 10 agonizing months with only 15% heart function, Hunsinger was getting a new heart. “We arrived at UCLA at 9 a.m.,” he recalled. “By 9:50 they told me, ‘Kiss your wife goodby,’ and they wheeled me on a gurney through the double doors.”

About 5 1/2 hours later, the heart of a man who died in New Mexico was beating in Hunsinger’s chest. That night he watched the televised Academy Awards from his bed at the critical care unit of the UCLA Cardiac Transplant Center in Los Angeles.

But Hunsinger and his wife had a quiet celebration with friends Wednesday. “I’m still 54. But my heart turns 34 today,” Hunsinger said. The donor was 33 years old.

Hunsinger is one of an estimated 10 Ventura County residents who have received heart transplants at UCLA.

Seven days after surgery, Hunsinger went home, and seven weeks later he returned to work full time as vice president of Tri Air, a company that exports aircraft parts.

Hunsinger was an avid scuba diver when, in 1982 at age 44, he had a heart attack and required triple bypass surgery. He had a second attack in 1989.

The average wait for a new heart is four to six months, but Hunsinger waited 10 months. “I was afraid I wouldn’t last until a heart was available,” he said.

Nationwide, about 2,400 people are on waiting lists for new hearts, but only 160 transplants are performed each month, according to Hunsinger’s physician, Dr. Jon Kobashigawa, assistant clinical professor of medicine with the UCLA Cardiac Transplant Center.

After the transplant, many patients are able to resume nearly their normal level of activity, Kobashigawa said.

During Hunsinger’s recovery, he learned to play the fiddle. He is president of the local 400-member chapter of the Oldtime Fiddlers Assn., and he and his wife, whom he married 2 1/2 years ago, are both country music and dance enthusiasts.

“Last October, Luana and I entered a dance contest at the Oldtime Fiddlers Convention in Northern California, and we won it,” Hunsinger said. Referring to his weakened condition before the surgery, he added, “We could never have done that.”