Oklahoma Man Celebrates Valentine's Day With A New Heart

<p>This Valentine&rsquo;s Day will be the sweetest one yet for a Tulsa man because he is alive to enjoy it.&nbsp;</p>

Wednesday, February 10th 2016, 7:08 pm

By: News 9


This Valentine’s Day will be the sweetest one yet for a Tulsa man because he is alive to enjoy it.

He went from a broken heart to a brand new heart and can now celebrate his 50th birthday and Valentine's Day this weekend.

Tim Stone said Integris Baptist Medical Center saved his life.

He and his wife Leslie just celebrated 30 years of marriage, he is a proud father of two and adores his grandchildren.

However, he nearly lost it all at age 49.

“They marked it for, ‘Yeah this could be another blanket over the head thing,’” Stone said.

Last year, Tim got double-lung pneumonia, which caused kidney failure.

He already had a heart muscle disease called cardiomyopathy which lead to a failing heart.

“It was broke, it was broke bad,” Stone told News 9.

Stone went to Integris Baptist for help and spent three months in the hospital.

He went from 185 pounds to 113 pounds.

Stone was placed on the heart transplant list at the highest status possible and within 8 days, he had a new heart.

“Eight days is really unheard of and you give all the glory upstairs for taking care of that,” Stone explained.

He said he cannot thank the doctors and nurses enough. 

“They're the best in the world at what they do,” Stone said.

“It's humbling, you know, to have somebody so close to death and so sick,” said Dr. Anita Phancao, a heart failure transplant cardiologist at Integris Baptist.

So Stone’s heart is full of love as he prepares to simultaneously celebrate Valentine's Day and his 50th birthday this weekend.

“I think my heart is a little bit younger than that, so we've set up a calendar at our home and I have to different birthdays now,” Stone said with a big smile.

Stone said he is most excited about getting to walk his daughter down the aisle when she gets married in June.

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