Forever Grateful

Life was good for Dr. Keith Vrbicky, in 2021. His obstetrics/gynecology practice and tele-medicine business in Norfolk Neb. thrived. A solid faith and family life sustained him and his wife Karyn. Blessed with good health, he endured the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic unscathed. Then things changed in the most dramatic of ways. Despite no history of heart disease, he learned that his heart was in free fall. Within two weeks of being diagnosed as an acute heart failure patient, he was placed on the transplant list. Suddenly, this fit, active physician found himself a bed-ridden, critical care patient requiring a team of experts to determine what was causing his crisis. Next level care kept his other organs from failing so that he could be a candidate to receive a new heart. The only catch: a matching organ had to be found within 48 hours. Miraculously, one became available and he gratefully accepted this gift of life. Through the ordeal, faith and family bolstered his spirits and world class care healed his body. His post-transplant recovery proceeded well enough that he was back to delivering babies and performing surgeries six months later. He's lived to escort a daughter down the aisle and to see another grandchild born. His new mission is to get more people to become organ and tissue donors so that they, too, can give the gift of life.