A woman whose heart was originally working at 15 percent of capacity said her heart became healthy without her scheduled transplant.
Melissa Justice was in heart failure two years ago, but now her heart is healthy and doctors were amazed, 10TV's Andrea Cambern reported on Thursday.
Justice, 31, went through therapy before her scheduled heart transplant. Doctors implanted a heart assist pump to let her heart rest.
A short time later, word came that a donor was available and doctors did a final scan before the transplant.
Then, during the surgery, doctors came out and told her husband they did not complete the transplant.
"Three hours into the surgery we knew something was either terribly wrong or terribly good, the doctor just comes out," said Ray Justice, Melissa's husband.
Doctors said that Melissa Justice's heart had healed so much that she did not need a donor heart.
"It was a very unusual situation. It was almost something you would see on a TV drama," said Dr. Ayesha Hasan.
Another patient received the heart, and Melissa Justice went home with her pump and took long walks.
Her heart healed so much, that a year ago, doctors removed the pump and she got her life back, Cambern reported.
"It's been wonderful," she said.
In gratitude to the doctors at the Ohio State Medical Center, Melissa and Ray Justice planned to walk in Saturday's annual Heart Walk to raise money for the American Heart Association.
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