CLEVELAND — Jermayne Harris’ lifeline is a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD.

The 29-year-old has lived with the device since 2019. It’s attached to him 24/7 to help his heart pump to keep him alive while he waits for a heart transplant.

What You Need To Know

  • Black people are the largest minority group in need of organ transplants, but that population is less likely to be organ donors

  • According to 2020 statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, 28.5% of total candidates waiting for organ transplants are black, but black people only make up 12.9% of organ donors

  • Jermayne Harris was diagnosed with heart failure at age 23 and has been waiting for a heart transplant since 2019

“It’s not as easy to shower. I have to put all of this stuff in a shower bag, cover the driveline," said Harris. "It’s just a lot harder than just rolling out of bed and say I want to get in the shower.”

Harris was diagnosed with heart failure in 2017 at age 23.

Now, every few months, he sees his medical team at the LVAD Clinic at the Cleveland Clinic.

All of this started as what the Columbus man thought was a bad cold. But when the wheezing got to where he had to sit straight up to sleep and the swelling became so severe his shoes didn’t fit, Harris took himself to the hospital.

“The next morning I was told I had heart failure," said Harris.

A heart defibrillator did the trick for a while until he had a panic attack three years ago. That’s when Harris was life-flighted to the Cleveland Clinic. His LVAD surgeon, Dr. Edward Soltesz, explains Harris was in cardiogenic shock.

“Literally hours matter to get a patient resuscitated and stabilized before they actually succumb," said Soltesz.

“The night before my surgery, about to get open heart surgery, you have to have the conversation of, you know, power of attorney. What do you want to happen if something doesn’t go right? So, I had to have that conversation with my mom. So, that night was really, was kind of rough," said Harris.

Despite those rough times, Harris refuses to sit around and wait for his life to start after he gets a new heart.

“It was going to slow me down, but it’s never going to stop me," said Harris.

In 2020, he opened a food truck with his dad. Cooking has always been his passion, he said, and Mayne Course is a dream come true.

Earlier this year, he got married. Harris said his wife, Keima, is a big part of his support system alongside his family and friends.

“My relationship with God is very strong," said Harris. "It can be kind of cliché, but when people ask me, you know, 'How did you get through it?' that’s really it. You kind of just have to let go."

While he waits on the life-saving and life-changing call, Harris hopes to educate others on the gift of organ donation. 

“I just recently learned Black people are in most need of organs, but Black people are also the least signed up to be donors. I think a lot of people’s biggest thought is their life won’t be saved if they’re an organ donor and I say, 'OK well a doctor shouldn’t even know that you’re an organ donor until it’s pretty much the end of the line,'" said Harris. "I’ve always been an organ donor, but we didn’t really know or care about the situation until it was directly affecting us. So, before you and your family have to get to that point, just educate yourself and make an informed decision from there."

Soltesz said the wait for a new heart for someone with an LVAD could be anywhere from a few months to a few years. It depends on how sick a patient is considered based on a status from the United Network for Organ Sharing or UNOS. UNOS statuses go from one to seven, one being the most critically ill. Patients like Harris, who are stable on an LVAD are considered status four.

Soltesz said in the last couple of months, two new sources of hearts have become available at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Two new sources of donor hearts, that is DCD heart transplants and the TransMedics Organ Care System, which allows us to go much further to get hearts where we actually put the donor heart in a device and we reanimate the heart. It starts beating again on its way back here to the Cleveland Clinic," said Dr. Soltesz. "We're hoping that now, with these new opportunities for more supply, that we don't actually have to increase his demand, meaning we don't have to bring him to a status three, or status two which really requires him to become sicker. We can increase the supply to get him a heart and keep on the status four.”

Soltesz said organ donation and transplants are really a supply and demand issue and those two new opportunities mean more supply to meet the growing demand.