CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- As the nation celebrates Veteran's Day, one local Navy vet is spending the day with a new heart thanks to a new program.
Navy veteran and Park Forest resident Dwayne Patterson, 58 is the first patient to receive a heart transplant through a new advanced heart failure collaboration between Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute.
After years of service and great health, Patterson suddenly found out he had Congestive Heart Failure.
"This sickness just come out of nowhere," he said. "I was pretty healthy. You know, but then I come to find out that my grandmother had it years and years ago, so which I didn’t know until it happened to me."
Patterson received his heart in April.
"Like my sister says, someone died for you to live. So you know, I always had to keep that in the back of my mind, back of my head," he said.
"I have a second chance at life now."
Dr. Sarah Chuzi of Northwestern Medicine is Patterson's cardiologist.
"So the VA has always had a special place in my heart mainly because of the patients, the veterans," she said.
"They are so resilient and strong and they have served our country and so they are incredibly deserving of good care."
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