Alumni Almanac
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Heart in Motion
by Michael R. Haskins
In November 2001, Christine Galan crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon. But the journey she completed was so much longer than 26 miles.
Galan,
a 1984 arts and sciences graduate, was the first person
with a heart and liver transplant to complete the famed
race. Even more miraculously, she did so just three years
after her transplant surgery. You'd expect that she made
a few pit stops along the course, and you'd be right.
But not to rest — she paused only to tape segments
for a documentary film on tissue donation.
It's not unusual for Galan to multi-task, even during a grueling endurance test that takes the wind out of the most fit athletes' sails. Having faced imminent death — an organ donor came through with only hours to spare — she chooses not to waste a minute of her life.
"I don't feel bad about what's happened to me, I feel privileged," says Galan, 40. "I have nothing to complain about. I have life."
Still, if Galan wanted to complain, nobody would begrudge her. As a high school senior in 1980, she began suffering from severe anemia, had to have her spleen and gallbladder removed, and went on a medicinal regime that wreaked havoc with her body. Seven years later, she was diagnosed with a rare form of lupus that caused congestive heart failure, requiring more medicine and chemotherapy. A decade after that, she developed liver stones that led to the chronic liver failure and weakened heart for which she required the double transplant.
But that's only half the story. During those same years, Galan finished high school and college, moved to New York City, opened a branch of her family's promotional advertising company, and became one of the most active tri-state volunteers for the Starlight Foundation, an organization that grants the wishes of chronically and terminally ill children. In 1997, as her own health failed and she made plans to move back to her parents' home in San Diego while awaiting an organ donor, she granted 23 Starlight Foundation wishes — more than any volunteer that year.
Since her transplant surgery, Galan, against all conventional wisdom, has exponentially increased her activities. Her recovery stunned the medical community, especially when she left the hospital after 18 days, immediately went back to work and began exercising on a treadmill.
"The doctors told me I would, at best, only be able to walk slowly for the rest of my life," says Galan, who still sports the Jamaican accent she acquired as a child on her native island, from which her parents moved to California when she was 14. "Every time I did something, they said that I shouldn't be able to do it."
Those same physicians, who never have been able to trace the cause of her many rare ailments, would be hard-pressed to keep up with her today. But let's not sugar coat it. Galan was on dialysis and in so much pain that at one point she wanted to die, and she says only the faith and strength of her parents pulled her through. She didn't exactly spring out of bed right after surgery, either, in fact she could barely move. But she did have an unwavering determination to restore her body to the best possible physical condition.
"The rest," she says, "is up to God."
Galan regained her strength and returned to New York City, her business and the Starlight Foundation, for which she now has granted more than 250 wishes.
"We ask our wish granters to do three a year, Christine averages between 40 and 50," says program manager Michele Hall. "It's clear that she feels like she has had a lot of support and love from her family, and she wantsto share that. She's the person we always call first."
Good
enough? Not quite. Galan also volunteers for the New York
Organ Donor Network, speaks frequently in the community
to promote awareness of the need for donors, and lobbies
for legislation in the field. She's tirelessly appeared
on numerous news and health television shows, talking
about the importance of maintaining an exercise program
while sick. She recorded an exercise rehabilitation video
for others who undergo difficult surgeries, and markets
it on her Web site, www.surgicalrecovery.com.
She's written an as-yet unpublished book about her experiences.
And, of course, she finished the New York City Marathon.
Through it all, she genuinely, unbelievably, marvels at how fortunate she is, and wastes no time dwelling on her problems. Using her time to help others is, in her mind, simply what she does.
"I'm not someone to look up to. I'm just trying
to let people know they can fight through their problems
and get on with life," says Galan, who was an organ
donor long before she needed the transplant surgery. "I
could have just gone on with my life after the surgery,
but I was saved for a reason. I never ask, 'Why me?' These
are the cards I was dealt. I'm going to play them."