‘Very grateful’: 2 years later, Utah 12-year-old recounts heart transplant experience

ROY, Utah (KSL.com) — Through it all — the dilated cardiomyopathy diagnosis, the heart transplant, the recovery — Jabri Fox, now 12, has tried to maintain a matter-of-fact outlook.

She recalls the moments before she went into the operating room two years ago to get a new heart. “Everyone thought I was so nervous, but I wasn’t. I was ready to get it over with,” she said.

The doctors said she needed a new heart to survive, so she was ready to go forward — not that her mom and other family weren’t a bundle of nerves.

At any rate, two years later — Wednesday marked the two-year anniversary of getting the donor ticker — she’s a changed person, cognizant that life is full of risks and unknowns.

“There’s never, like, a normal,” she said, when questioned what the “new normal” is for her post-surgery. “There’s always a scare that comes with everything.”

Heart transplants for juveniles are relatively rare, though not unheard of. Still, it’s heavy stuff for a pre-teen. Jabri, a fifth grader and just 10 when she had the transplant surgery, is now a seventh grader at West Point Junior High School in Davis County. “It definitely makes you a lot more mature, makes you older,” she said.

Her faith has helped, says her mom, Casey Thompson, who operates a hair salon in Roy.

“She’s done a lot of praying. She’s really grateful,” said Thompson, who spoke with her daughter at the Weber County Library System branch in Roy, not far from their home in Clinton.

What’s more, Jabri — not one for bouts of self-pity — is sometimes called on to talk to others facing serious medical issues to encourage them as they battle for good health. That, Thompson said, has helped with the healing process.

“I feel good about reaching two years, very grateful I made it this far,” Jabri said.

Tears, prayers and paperwork

The first human heart transplant occurred in 1967 in South Africa, according to a Cardiovascular Journal of Africa article curated by the National Library of Medicine. It generated a flurry of global media attention at the time. While heart transplant operations have since become more common and survival rates have improved, the procedure is still relatively rare.

Around 3,700 heart transplant operations are performed annually in the United States, according to the Yale School of Medicine, while New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City estimates there are around 500 pediatric transplants per year.

Intermountain Health says doctors with the Utah-based health system’s transplant program performed 30 adult heart transplant operations in 2023, while Thompson said Jabri was the 12th juvenile transplant recipient of 2022 in the state when she underwent the procedure on Nov. 13 that year.

Growing up, Jabri never exhibited any issues that would portend the need for a new heart. But as summer turned to fall in September 2022, her health suddenly deteriorated. She constantly felt sick, threw up everything she ate and lost weight. After a few weeks of visits to doctors, as she and her family tried to figure out what was going on, a CT scan helped pinpoint the problem: dilated cardiomyopathy. “It’s a type of heart failure when your heart’s not pumping enough blood to the body,” Thompson said.

Doctors aren’t sure why Jabri had it, but whatever the cause, the condition had enlarged her heart to the size of an 80-year-old’s. When medicine didn’t help, doctors told Jabri and her family she likely wouldn’t last another three years without a new heart.

“I was kind of like in shock,” Jabri said.

Tears, prayers and paperwork followed, leading to the placement of Jabri’s name on a heart transplant waiting list. A scant six hours after her name was placed on the list, a donor was identified in Montana, a 27-year-old father of two who had died. Surgery plans came together at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. The speed of everything “was literally like a miracle,” Thompson said.

The operation, while successful, isn’t the end of things. Jabri constantly has to be attentive to the possibility of rejection of the donor organ and she takes medication to guard against the possibility. “We know in the future she may have to get a new (heart),” Thompson said.

Looking back, Jabri advises those contending with serious medical issues to heed the advice of experts. In her case, her doctors told her to get up and walk soon after her transplant, which she did, though it took a lot of willpower. She also advises those contending with medical problems to visualize recuperation and good health.

“You’ve just got to think of the best outcome that’s going to happen. You just have to imagine yourself at the end, being healthy,” she said.