Lenny Buisson is a familiar face around the Tufts Medical Center cardiac units. In 2021 Lenny was embracing healthy living, weight training regularly and eating a balanced diet, when he was unexpectedly diagnosed with heart failure. Shortly thereafter, it became apparent that Lenny’s only option for long-term recovery was a heart transplant. After receiving a heart transplant at Tufts MC, Lenny found a new focus: supporting other heart failure patients and their families. On the two-year anniversary of his surgery, Lenny reflects on his own heart transplant and all the people he’s helped since.
In December of 2021 Lenny was an active 42-year-old, visiting the gym regularly for 20 years and maintaining a healthy diet, when his journey with heart failure began. "My heart felt like it was bursting through my chest, and I couldn't fathom why," Lenny recalls. Lenny was placed on the heart transplant list, with his heart functioning at just 10%. By June, Lenny’s health had worsened, and his heart was now operating at a mere 3%. On July 3, 2022, after a six-month physical, emotional and mental battle, Gregory Couper, MD, Surgical Director, Advanced Heart Failure Program, shared the exciting news that a heart was available for Lenny. His transplant was successful and Lenny returned to the gym, rebuilding his strength and skill to help create, in his own words, “a better Lenny.” With Lenny’s physical health improving, he looked for ways to give back to the care team and Tufts Medical Center that did so much for him.
During his stay at Tufts MC, Lenny connected with fellow heart failure patients and bonded over their shared experiences. Just months after receiving his transplant, Lenny returned to Tufts MC to thank his caregivers and support other heart failure patients on their own path to transplant. "I felt compelled to pay it forward because someone else's loss is what has granted me life," he said. Lenny can be seen several days a week making house calls to patients on the transplant list awaiting their call at Tufts MC’s Cardiac Care Unit (CCU), Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit (CSICU) and cardiac step-down units. "When I visit patients, I want them to see the light beyond the diagnosis." As a living reminder of life after heart failure, Lenny helps patients and families through the mental and emotional journey. Having been through the experience already, Lenny meets patients with empathy, compassion and understanding to help support them in their recovery.
Two years after his heart transplant, Lenny looks back on the impact of his transplant and all the patients he’s met since. Visiting the Tufts MC cardiac staff and patients has been particularly rewarding for Lenny and he hopes to be back soon, but only as a visitor and not a patient. Lenny is grateful for how caring, kind and inspirational the CCU staff have been throughout his care and hopes to share the same encouragement and positivity with more patients in the future.
Support heart transplant patients like Lenny via the The Heart Failure & Cardiac Transplant Patient Support Fund.
