01/17/2026
After a full day of yard work Denis Popp’s left shoulder throbbed. He figured it was a flare-up of pain from a past injury, but pain medication didn’t help like it usually did. It hurt so badly he couldn’t get to sleep. The next morning, he went to urgent care.
“Mr. Popp, you’re having a heart attack,” a nurse told him. “An ambulance is on the way.” Within hours, doctors had placed three stents in his heart to clear blockages in his arteries.
At 47, married and the father of four daughters, he feared not turning 50. He started taking his health more seriously, learned about healthier eating and started walking regularly.
But his heart never recovered completely. Over the years, his heart function continued to deteriorate. He had to stop working. “I was using two canes to walk and could barely climb any stairs,” said Denis. He was told he’d need a heart transplant to survive in the long term.
Meanwhile, his left ventricle needed immediate help. That came in the form of a left ventricular assist device, a surgically implanted mechanical pump that essentially does the work of the left side of the heart. Patients can rely on them long-term or short-term while awaiting a heart transplant.
One evening 14 months later – Jan. 3, 2017, at 5:57 p.m., to be exact – the transplant team called. “Mr. Popp, would you like to come to the hospital tonight and get a new heart?”
The day after his transplant, Denis, who was about to turn 60, felt like a new person. And he had a new mission.
Now 68, Denis volunteers regularly with the organ transplant groups, the American Heart Association and Mended Hearts, a nonprofit that provides peer-to-peer counseling for people living with heart disease. He also volunteers at the hospital where he was treated.
“Someone passed away to give me this gift, and I am going to do everything I can to honor that,” he said. “It’s now my calling to help others going through the same thing.”
Read Denis' Story From the Heart: http://spr.ly/6189CFHvX
