PEOPLE : Lawyer Has Heart to Finish Last

Attorney Jerry Edelstein was in great shape as he left the L.A. Sports Club the morning of Feb. 13, 1990.

“I’d been eating right, sleeping right, didn’t do drugs or alcohol and worked out every day,” says Edelstein.

But Edelstein suddenly felt weak, short of breath, incredibly ill. Embarrassed to ask for help, he managed to walk into Cedars-Sinai and sit down under his own power--then he passed out.

“When I woke up a week later, I had a new heart,” Edelstein says. “It’s a miracle they found a donor after four days because the doctors knew I couldn’t survive another four; they were ready to pull the plug.” Edelstein is back at work full time, back to his family and friends. “The quality of my life now is truly wonderful,” he says.

Saturday he will celebrate by running a 5-K race at the U.S. Transplant Games, held through Sunday at UCLA. It’s an Olympic-style event in which about 1,000 recipients of donated organs compete in sports, proving that there is life after a transplant--and that to be a donor is to give a true gift of life.

Among the athletes will be 10 bone marrow recipients, seven who have received both hearts and lungs, 154 with “new” hearts, 521 kidney recipients, 120 liver recipients, and four who have received both pancreas and kidneys.

Edelstein, now 52, knows he won’t be speediest runner. “I guarantee you I’m going to come in last,” he says, “but isn’t it great that I am going to come in?”