Bill Coon - Heart Transplant Recipient, Author, Advocate

Our speaker at the OTS meeting on March 2 was Bill Coon, a two-time heart recipient, author and advocate.   Everyone at this virtual meeting was truly inspired by Bill’s 25+ years as a transplant recipient, and his honesty in explaining his emotions to us during this journey. 

In 1989, Bill Coon was born with a congenital heart defect. That year, he became the fourth infant heart transplant in the Midwest, and the eighth in the nation. At the age of twenty, Bill was diagnosed with end stage heart and kidney failure.   The heart he received as an infant had failed and his kidney also failed due to years of  antirejection medication.  Bill spent 70 days in the intensive care unit of a Chicago hospital, waiting for his second heart transplant and his first kidney transplant.  Thanks to the generosity of selflessness of a second donor,  Bill’s life was saved with a heart and kidney transplant on October 21, 2009. 

  Bill is also a passionate advocate for organ donation.  He has written a memoir called SWIM, A Memoir of Survival.  This book can be ordered on Amazon.com or at this website:  billcoonspeaks.com. 

  In 2017 Bill launched Keep Swimming Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides financial relief to families of critically ill patients facing long-term inpatient care. 

  Bill Coon is an outstanding speaker, and his talk prompted a lively discussion during the meeting about the many emotions facing organ transplant patients.  Bill Coon’s story is an inspiration to anyone facing a serious illness.  All of us at OTS are sincerely grateful to Bill Coon for speaking at the OTS meeting in March.