Wayzata High School Student Back Home After Heart Transplant
Carter Anderson, a student at Wayzata High School, calls Medina home — but his true home is on the baseball diamond.
“I get to hang out with friends, play the sport that I love,” he told CCX News.
He’s a pitcher with a half-dozen ways to fool a batter from the mound.
“Four seam, two seam, curveball, change up and slider,” Anderson said, listing his pitches.
But after life threw Anderson its own curveball, he’s not sure if he’s ready to head back to the dugout.
He’s been busy savoring life at home, reconnecting with what he missed during an extended hospital stay.
“Just like, being around my family I guess, you miss that part the most,” Anderson said. “Hang around friends and everything.”
Doctors discovered a few years ago during a routine check-up that Anderson had a genetic heart condition.
“I just remember the doctor just handing me this piece of paper that said cardiomyopathy dilated,” said Phalen Stang, Anderson’s mother. “It said his injection fraction on there which is like — normal is like 55 to 75 percent, and his was in the 40s.”
Anderson had a device implanted in his body that could shock him to fix his heart rhythm if he went into cardiac arrest.
After it shocked him multiple times during a baseball game, doctors discovered his heart was failing.
“She said, I’m sorry to say but you guys are being admitted we’re going to start the transplant process tomorrow,” Stang said, describing their conversation with a doctor.
After weeks in the hospital, he received his heart transplant. It happened shortly after his 16th birthday.
Carter Anderson and his mother Phalen Stand talk in their Medina home. Anderson recently received a heart transplant.
He’s starting to feel better physically.
“He was discharged after ten days of his transplant, and I mean, even he could feel and see the difference,” Stang said.
As he headed home with his new heart, his friends and family rushed to meet him, celebrating his release from the hospital.
“He’s just got the biggest smile, and he’s shaking all of his buddy’s hands, and it’s just the little things that, you know, you miss out,” Stang said.
As he eases back into life at home, the family has an organ donor to thank.
They’re asking everyone to consider becoming a donor.
“I mean it’s just something that, it’s something that’s so little I mean in reality that you can save so many lives,” Stang said.
See also: Brooklyn Park Girl’s Leukemia Battle Turns into Medical Whirlwind
Wayzata High School
