CLEVELAND (WJW) – Tom Sonneborn of Parma Heights is a heart transplant survivor, but his journey was anything but easy.
“I remember it—certainly,” he says. “You remember the bad parts.”
Eight years ago, Tom received a heart transplant. He celebrated that milestone just last week. But the road leading up to that moment began a year earlier, when the normally healthy, active 61-year-old suddenly went into heart failure.
Tom was in and out of the hospital for months. After a year of unpredictable setbacks, doctors placed him on the heart transplant list.
When a B-positive heart became available, Tom was the only person in the region with that blood type.
After a successful transplant, Tom spent a week in recovery and went home ten days later.
“My heart was from a 13-year-old boy,” Tom says quietly. “His mother had to make the decision because at that age, he wasn’t an organ donor. I am so grateful to her—we stay in contact a little bit.”
That gratitude grew into a sense of purpose.
Today, Tom volunteers every week at the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, offering support to patients facing the same fear and uncertainty he once felt.
“You just hope you help their process—the scary moments,” he says. “Which there are a ton of.”
Because Tom knows what it’s like. He’s lived it. And now, he chooses to use his second chance to guide others through theirs.
“One of the things I always get is, ‘You’re giving your time, and you can’t get that back.’ For me, it’s extra innings. Because if I didn’t get the heart, I wouldn’t be able to help someone else get through the situation and navigate the uncertainty of it.”
Click here for more information on the Cleveland Clinic’s Volunteering Services.