Humor Heals the Heart: The Anna King Project | Anna King | TEDxYouth@FFHS
[Music] [Applause] [Music] hi everyone I am oh there we go all right here we go all right so like I said I am oh I want to thank you Nick and Adam for inviting me to this awesome event right what a great thing this is allowing us to share all different kinds of ideas and stories and I'm just so honored to be able to share my story with you guys so today I am a senior in Newfield high school I Drive my $400 John her to school every day where and I'm president of my class this spring I was pauletta levante in Mayfield's production of Legally Blonde the musical I volunteer my time as president of Key Club and a member of National Honor Society so all that sounds pretty horrible right well I'm telling you all of this because while on the outside it appears that I'm living just the normal busy life of a teenager there's actually something very different about me and that'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 so it's been about six years since my heart story started when I was 12 years old I just started feeling lousy parrot tagged me in and out of the doctor's office trying to figure out what was going on with me they I just felt tired about the time and doctor said that I must have a virus this one for a few months until I developed pneumonia luckily my pediatrician ordered a chest x-ray in that one field that my heart was slightly enlarged this led to a followup with a pediatric radiologist it was a late Friday afternoon my parents brought me for that appointment they did an EKG and an echocardiogram and from that they were able to tell that I was a heart failure and had dilated cardiomyopathy and when you know heart transplant so yeah this is a moment that my parents described as being hit in the head with a sledgehammer and this was obviously a life-changing experience that my whole family would need to learn to deal with for the next few years so as a twelve-year-old I obviously knew that I was very safe but I also felt confident that I would be okay I always believed that a heart would come optimism was my life preserver we did our best to stay positive and took it one day at a time and we did that for 832 days let me let me repeat that 832 days so I couldn't play sports or be active anymore because my illness so we focus on all of the things I could do so I always want to read so I rest tons of books they're literally running enough but cases in my room to pull all the books I own I watch a lot of Netflix right so due to this today and I took up guitar lessons and even learned how to play golf we had so many people supporting me and pulling for our whole family that it was really difficult to feel sorry for ourselves instead we focus on how lucky we were now you want to think that I was lucky to be diagnosed with diabetic cardiomyopathy but I can tell you how dangerous it is not to be diagnosed we just recently heard of another child who died from an undiagnosed heart condition likely cardiomyopathy but I was diagnosed I had an ejection fraction of 17% the only thing you need to know about that number is that it's bad I was very sick and I'll BB knew that I wasn't feeling well we had no idea that it was this severe or even heart related so immediately we felt grateful that I had been diagnosed and the doctors have helped me a cardiologist referred us to Texas Children's Hospital which just happened to be ranked number two in the country for their pediatric heart program so again how lucky we were to be living right next to the state-of-the-art facility they listed me on medications they gave me some medications they listed me on the transplant list and a week for a new heart began so I mentioned before that I waited 832 days now I know this sounds crazy at all but actually I gotta tell you it really wasn't I was actually pretty spoiled during that time and I was definitely not complaining about that I gotta leave a make-a-wish trip to visit the set on my favorite TV show site anyone that's like Sam sure okay we went to Vancouver for a couple dates my whole family and it was a wonderful experience for all of us also on my bucket list was to go see a Broadway show so an anonymous benefactor we still don't know who it was today there we go pay for my entire family to go to New York City students at my school had a point job for me our choir on the benefit concert my sister who was 9 at the time did elimination one Saturday morning and made over $2,000 one morning we opened our door and there were three hundred dollars just in cash and about like I said we were so well cared for during this time but one of the most special gifts that we received was from a couple who had lost both of their children to cardiomyopathy they did a fundraiser in honor of their babies came and a bee and sent part of that money to us it was moments like this that really showed us the best in people and it made us want to try and do the same so almost immediately I started working as an advocate for organ donation we started a Facebook page and I named it humor kills the heart we use it to send messages and create videos to share with our friends and family but that quickly spread until I had over 7,000 people following that page we like to say that I became an accidental advocate because I was just a kid but bu if I started coming in from schools and nonprofits and news organizations and giving back has really become a way that this experience has been a positive a positive one in my life so there's Hanlin elementary school so I've told you a little bit about the way now let me tell you about Vedic day and underneath their detail so boba weeks prior I started having some dangerous heartbeats and my doctors decided that I needed an ICD implanted or a defibrillator now about all this time without me having any issues that were major and I did not want to get this ICD that night I prayed that a heart would come should I wouldn't have to go through that because the hospital very early in the morning for that appointment and we got situated and sat down to wait and the nurse came over to us and they said they were having trouble finding a bed and that they might have to reschedule we were so frustrated I can't eat before I have a procedure so my parents don't because solidarity but that just makes all of us grumpy so they said wait around for a little while we'll see if we can figure it out which we did and a couple hours went by the set okay we're good to go we go up to the pre-op area and you know they put the IV in get me situated and then we're waiting again when it was time it's one o'clock afternoon we're all grumpy just not happy with the situation and then I seen my transplant coordinator Diana on walk in the room and there are like several people following behind her she sits down my band she says and you know you're ready to get this ICD I said yes and she said well how'd you like to get a new heart and stuff I didn't get an ICD that day I got a new heart they will be in the operating room midnight and it would take ten hours and a couple rough days after that but I had a new healthy heart beating inside of me all thanks to the love of an organ donor it is because of the organ donor that I'm standing here today that I can attend me feel in high school and in a few months I can go to college this fall I'll be attending the cell college and Neumann maths growl study graphic design well I was waiting for my heart transplant we were able to connect with the lifeless good company and after I received my heart I got to fly to our headquarters in Boston and that's where I experienced graphic design firsthand and just fell in love with its mixture of creativity and marketing so graphic designs a job that I can do from anywhere which is super important considering my health challenges but more importantly I maintaining a passion for storytelling because receiving a heart transplant helps me find my purpose in life to be an advocate and a storyteller and that's something that I tend to do no matter what my career the father at my organ donor Steve Russell said yes to organ donation and yes to giving me a second chance his daughter Clarissa had been in a car accident she was not a registered organ donor but Steve believe that that's what she would have wanted and what must have been his darkest moment he said yes to helping a stranger someone that we admire very much from life as good company Brut Jacobs told us a story about how a plane was like a pendulum 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 and life become tremendous gifts I can never repay to give see he gave me through organ donation but I can't live my life well and celebrate it and try to honor Marissa in that way or in donation say use lives so please consider registering to be an organ eye and tissue donor and thank you so much for having able to Matt thank you [Applause] [Music]