Good morning everyone from Vanderbilt Medical Heart Center in Nashville TN… I am Bill Carey pictured right in the picture above. This picture was taken earlier this week in the Room of Ben Coker (Left)  who like myself is awaiting  a Heart Transplant here at (VMC). What makes this picture and story so unique is that both Ben and I live in the same county and community.

Tishomingo County, Mississippi and live less than 10 miles from each other.  Our churches and community introduced us to one another recently as neither one of us knew about the others plight.  Ben is a 26 year old young man who has been battling his entire life with Heart Disease and has had multiple surgeries. Bill is a 63 y/o man and has been fighting Heart Disease since 2015. They find themselves in the same boat of life rowing in the same direction. They both are waiting for the Ultimate Gift  that someone can bestow upon them.  A Heart that will give them both a better quality of life so that they may live, laugh and love again without the fear of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).  Just to be clear, we want folks to know that we both need a new heart but we are vastly different in our size and requirements. A heart match requires a blood type match and a near body size match. Ben & Bill have different blood types and Bill is twice the size of Ben and requires a larger much larger size donor compared to Ben.

Both Ben and Bill have a GoFundMe pages within the community and want to Thank Everyone for their Support and Prayers during this very intense time.  

It’s the waiting game that keeps both of us up most nights. Knowing that at any moment we could be getting the call from our Heart Transplant Coordinator that a Donor has been found.  The costs associated with this entire process is staggering and the financial burden to most Families is daunting.  That’s why we wanted to reach out to Everyone in the region to make them aware of both Ben & Bill’s story of hope and prayer .  Please post this story on your Social Media Pages and within your communities. Our newly found Friendship shows that “There is No “I” in Team”, and that “ It takes a Village“ This saying  emphasizes  that a persons upbringing and well-being  is a communal effort involving many different people and groups, from parents to teachers to neighbors and family The whole idea underscores the belief that the collective involvement of a community is essential in achieving a certain goal or completing a task, 

Thank You and God Bless You All for reading this and sharing.

Bill Carey's GoFundMe

Ben Coker's GoFundMe