Humor Heals the Heart: The Anna King Project | Anna King | TEDxYouth@FFHS
This speaker, a Newfield High School senior, reveals that her current busy life is secondary to the heart she received via donation at age 14, emphasizing that her life purpose has become advocating for organ donation and storytelling based on her profound medical experience. Her recovery, which involved an 832-day wait and eventual heart transplant, led her to become an advocate, exemplified by her successful Facebook page, *Humor Kills the Heart*. The core message is that donation provides a second chance, prompting the audience to consider registering as donors.
## Speakers & Context
- **Speaker:** Unnamed senior in Newfield High School.
- **Current Status:** President of her class; volunteer for Key Club president and National Honor Society member; drives a $400 John her to school.
- **Personal Narrative Focus:** The life-altering experience of cardiac failure and subsequent heart transplant.
- **Event Context:** Speaking at an event hosted by Nick and Adam.
## Theses & Positions
- The outward appearance of a normal, busy teenage life masks a deep internal reality defined by a donated heart.
- The experience of severe illness and recovery leads to a profound sense of gratitude and a calling to advocacy.
- Living life after a donation allows the speaker to find purpose in being an advocate and a storyteller, regardless of future career path.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Heart Failure:** A medical condition leading to dilated cardiomyopathy, requiring a heart transplant.
- **Ejection Fraction:** A measure of heart pumping ability; speaker’s diagnosis was **17%**, which she states is "bad."
- **ICD (Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator):** A device the speaker was initially scheduled to receive but did not because she received a new heart.
- **Organ Donation:** The act of donating vital organs and tissues, which provided the speaker with a second chance at life.
- ***Humor Kills the Heart***: Name of the Facebook page the speaker founded to share messages and videos about organ donation advocacy.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Medical Diagnosis/Timeline:**
- Initial feeling of malaise/tiredness at age **12**.
- Initial diagnosis was vague (virus); later, a pediatric radiologist confirmed heart issues.
- Tests performed: EKG and echocardiogram, confirming **heart failure** and **dilated cardiomyopathy**.
- Required a heart transplant, leading to an **832-day** wait.
- Received the new heart following the scheduled ICD appointment.
- **Advocacy Building:** Started working as an advocate for organ donation, creating the Facebook page, which grew to over **7,000** followers through outreach from schools, nonprofits, and news organizations.
- **Career Development:** After the transplant, traveled to Boston and experienced graphic design, falling in love with its combination of creativity and marketing, noting it is a job that can be done from anywhere.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Age 12:** Start feeling lousy; doctor suspects a virus.
- **Unknown Period:** Pneumonia developed.
- **Later:** Pediatrician orders a chest x-ray showing a slightly enlarged heart.
- **Subsequent Appointment:** EKG and echocardiogram diagnose heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy.
- **Diagnosis/Wait Period:** Began process leading to the **832-day** wait.
- **Hospital Stay:** Waited for the transplant, initially scheduled for an ICD implantation.
- **Transplant Day:** Received the new heart when it was expected to be an ICD day.
- **Post-Transplant:** Traveled to Boston; began life centered on graphic design and advocacy.
- **Current:** Attending Newfield High School; plans to attend Cornell College and study graphic design in the fall.
## Named Entities
- **Newfield High School:** The speaker's current school.
- **Mayfield:** Location of the production of *Legally Blonde the Musical*.
- **Cornell College:** College the speaker plans to attend.
- **John her:** Vehicle driven to school.
- **Texas Children's Hospital:** Hospital where the speaker was referred for care; ranked number two in the country for its pediatric heart program.
- **Boston:** Location where the speaker flew after the transplant to experience graphic design.
- **Steve Russell:** Father of the speaker's organ donor.
- **Clarissa:** Steve Russell’s daughter; was not a registered organ donor, but Steve opted to donate for her.
- **Brut Jacobs:** Person who told a story about a plane acting as a pendulum.
## Numbers & Data
- Donation of heart occurred when the speaker was **14** years old.
- Heart failure symptoms started when the speaker was **12** years old.
- Wait time for the transplant: **832 days**.
- Ejection fraction reading: **17%**.
- Facebook followers: Over **7,000**.
- Donation context: The donor's daughter was **9** at the time of a benefit concert.
- Financial collection: Choir made over **$2,000** in one morning; found **three hundred dollars** in cash.
## Examples & Cases
- **The initial care:** Family sustained emotional impact described as *"being hit in the head with a sledgehammer."*
- **Sources of Support:** Received donations/help from multiple sources, including an anonymous benefactor who paid for the entire family to go to New York City, and a fundraiser from a couple who lost both children to cardiomyopathy.
- **The Storytelling Tool:** The plane analogy: *"for most people just kind of hangs out in the center area but for some who experienced difficult times and things get rough it swings far to one side but when it swings the other way it swings just this far with terrible things."*
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **John her:** The speaker's car.
- **Facebook:** Platform used for the advocacy page.
## References Cited
- **Peet's diagnosis:** Initial concern regarding feeling tired, leading to investigation.
- **Pediatric radiologist:** Performed follow-up after the chest x-ray.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Carrying the burden:** Choosing to focus on what they *could* do (reading, Netflix, guitar, golf) instead of dwelling on physical limitations.
- **Medical paths:** The planned ICD implantation versus the actual heart transplant.
- **Career focus:** Balancing the immediate medical reality with long-term career interests in graphic design.
## Methodology
- **Medical Investigation:** Initial self-reporting of symptoms, followed by mandatory diagnostic testing (EKG, echocardiogram, chest x-ray).
- **Advocacy Platform:** Utilizing social media (Facebook) to disseminate messages and stories about organ donation awareness.
- **Art/Skill Learning:** Actively engaging in non-physical hobbies like guitar and golf to maintain normalcy.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The speaker advocates for the donation of organs and tissues to provide second chances to others.
- Final direct appeal: *"please consider registering to be an organ eye and tissue donor."*
## Implications & Consequences
- The transplant experience shifts the speaker's life purpose from surviving illness to actively giving back through storytelling and advocacy.
- The lesson that difficulty can lead to tremendous gifts, as illustrated by the donor's gift enabling the speaker's current life.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"It's the heart I carry inside of me one that was donated to me almost four years ago when I was a 14 year old suffering from heart failure."*
- *"Heart would come optimism was my life preserver."*
- *"We did that for 832 days."*
- *"Are they just naive or are they totally brilliant?"* (Attributed to a question that steered her thinking, used here to signify the intellectual turning point).
- *"Okay, after watching all this, what is the question that you are left with? What is it that you want to know?"* (The guiding question that prompted her to focus on *why*).
- *"I'll be attending the cell college and Neumann maths growl study graphic design."* (Listing of future educational goals).
- *"The father at my organ donor Steve Russell said yes to organ donation and yes to giving me a second chance."*
- *"Please consider registering to be an organ eye and tissue donor."*