COVER STORY
Rachel Kuntzsch saves lives by telling her story across the state ‘I have an awareness that anything can happen at any time. I was almost an organ donor. Instead, I was a recipient.’
BY BETSY MINER-SWARTZ
Life was “exceedingly rich” for Rachel Kuntzsch when it nearly slipped into darkness forever. She was happy, 44 and her Lansing consulting firm was thriving. Rachel was a strong, vibrant mom, friend, daughter and wife. Time spent with her college-sweetheart husband, David, and their two boys involved travel, sports, kayaks and long hikes on beautiful trails. Everything changed over the course of just a few days in November 2018. Rachel became noticeably winded while doing seemingly simple activities. “I was doing yoga and having a hard time catching my breath. I thought I was worn down,” she said. “Over the course of a weekend, I couldn’t lay down without gasping for air.” Rachel went for an exam the next day and her EKG results pointed to real trouble: “They said, ‘We’re going to take you to the hospital.’ It was lights and sirens and it made no sense to me.”
Rachel and David Kuntzsch embrace and appreciate every day. Rachel was so ill she required heart/lung bypass in the hours before she received the heart of a 33-year-old man nearly five years ago.
A diagnosis with just one cure Rachel spent six days in the ICU without answers before she was transferred to Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. A heart biopsy revealed she had giant cell myocarditis, a fatal diagnosis.
Rachel was placed on a heart/lung bypass machine to sustain her life until a match could be found. She was placed on the national waiting list at status 1A, a category indicating extreme urgency. “I couldn’t hold my own head up. I felt so sick that it crossed my mind that it would feel better to die. But it didn’t last. I wasn’t ready to go,” she said.
Rachel was dying and only a transplant would save her life.
© Photo by Carrie Johnson
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Gift of Life Michigan | golm.org
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