Why this teenager got a second chance at life

CALLUM Gordon was a fit teenager keen to join the army when he was given some very scary news.

I WAS a fit and active 15-year-old and had never been sick before, yet two weeks after I completed an elite ice hockey academy, I suddenly couldn’t breathe.

I was training with my mum on the oval at Royal Military College, Duntroon when I found I was short of breath. The doctor said I had low blood pressure and put it down to exercise-induced asthma, so I continued on with my day.

Later that night I felt the same struggle to breathe when I lay down in bed. My heart was beating out of my chest and my skin turned clammy and grey. Mum had to take me to Canberra Hospital’s emergency department the next morning.

A chest X-ray revealed my heart was severely enlarged and my resting heart rate was 137 BPM. It was a shock when I was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy that afternoon. This potentially life-threatening condition meant my heart was struggling to pump blood because the left ventricle in my heart was enlarged and weakened.

I asked mum if I was going to die. She promised me I wouldn’t.

I was transferred to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney to see a paediatric cardiologist. All I was concerned about was if I could play ice hockey and join the army. My doctor told me I would never be able to do either again.

Things took a turn for the worse and unless I was moved to Melbourne within the next few days, I would die.

I was airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital and eventually had to be put on a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), a device designed to pump the blood around my body because my heart couldn’t do it anymore.

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Callum Gordon needed a heart transplant. Picture: Supplied

Miraculously, I woke up the same day as my surgery and was breathing on my own less than 24 hours later. But this would only ever be a short-term fix — I needed a new heart and that meant waiting for a transplant.

I did my best to stay positive but this was still a really anxious time, especially for my mum.

It was two months later when we got a call at 2am. Mum woke me and said, “Your gift has arrived.” It was time — there was a heart available for transplant.

I literally jumped out of bed. It was a wave of relief after all the waiting and hoping. It was finally happening.

I knew this would be the final step in getting back to my normal life and being able to join the Army one day. At the same time, I thought about the generous family — somewhere out there — who had just lost their loved one and agreed to the donation.

Before going into the operating theatre, I was asked whether I’d like to donate my old heart as the valves were still viable, and before the transplant co-ordinator nurse could even finish her sentence, I said: “Absolutely.”

SIGN UP NOW: To become a registered organ donor, click here

Callum Gordon got a visit from Spider-Man after his surgery.

I was out of surgery in record time again. My physio said I was the first transplant recipient to walk out the day after they woke up. For many, the road to recovery post-transplant is slow and steady, but for me, the change was almost instant.

Ten weeks after my surgery I was snowboarding at Hotham. Then I got back to what the doctors said I never could: 13 weeks after my transplant, I threw on my skates and trained with the Canberra Brave ice hockey team.

Sixteen weeks after, I undertook the Royal Military College’s Army work experience program, where I was one of only five teenagers to complete the obstacle course.

A year after I was first diagnosed I finally took to the ice again and played my first game of ice hockey with the junior travel team.

Organ donation saved my life. If you’ve ever thought about becoming an organ and tissue donor but haven’t got around to registering, you should. One donor can save and transform the lives of many people who are seriously ill or dying, so what are you waiting for?

I also was told that my own heart saved two other lives, and knowing this is a feeling I can’t begin to describe.

It felt like the perfect way to pay for the generosity of my own donor, whose family I’ll never know or meet.

News.com.au is supporting organ donation during DonateLife Week, click here to read more.

Callum Gordon was able to pick up ice skating again after his transplant.