Rotorua father Wiremu Keepa says he only had about three months to live when he had a heart transplant.
Rotorua father Wiremu Keepa says he only had about three months to live when he had a heart transplant.
Without it, “I would’ve been dead”, the 70-year-old said.
The new heart has given him another two decades of life.
Keepa said he had a degenerative heart condition before his transplant in 2003. He had been waiting for five years before he received a call asking him to go to Greenlane Hospital in Auckland.
Not knowing why he was going there, he arrived at the hospital where someone told him: “Your new heart is in the helicopter.”
Since the successful operation, he completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and became a father again.
He sits on the paepae [orators’ bench] for Ngāti Whakaue and has been learning te reo Māori.
Keepa has been a street collector for the Foundation’s Big Heart Appeal fundraiser in Rotorua and is speaking out ahead of the annual fundraiser in February alongside Tauranga woman Jean McLarnon.
Rotorua father Wiremu Keepa had a heart transplant 20 years ago, which he says saved his life. Photo / Andrew Warner
‘I think I’m having a heart attack’
McLarnon still remembers getting a phone call from her partner Bruce Steiner at 3.30am one morning in 2012 asking her to pick him up from work.
“I think I’m having a heart attack,” he told her.
The pair went to the hospital and were told if he had not stopped working, “we would be talking about him and not to him”.
In July 2022, Steiner died after almost a decade of living with heart disease. He was 82.
McLarnon, 82, has volunteered for the Heart Foundation for the past 12 years.
With more than 175,000 New Zealanders living with heart disease, McLarnon says supporting the Heart Foundation is “crucial” because “it truly is a lifesaver”.
Tauranga woman Jean McLarnon has volunteered for the Heart Foundation's Big Heart Appeal street collection every February for the past 12 years. Photo / Alex Cairns
McLarnon told the Bay of Plenty Times she and Steiner had been friends “since we went to school”.
“Then he got married and had five children, I got married and had five children and then in 1994, we got together again.”
McLarnon said Steiner saw his GP in 2014 after suffering from shortness of breath. Doctors discovered the cause was a blockage in the arteries surrounding his heart.
He was taken to Waikato Hospital where he had a “life-saving” quadruple bypass operation.
She said his birthday was November 22 and she had a candle going all day for him.
“I have his photo on the table – I talk to him every day.
“I’m just so blessed that I had to have him. A very lucky lady I am.”
Jean McLarnon said she was 'a very lucky lady' for having been with her long-time partner Bruce Steiner, who died in July 2022. Photo / Alex Cairns
In February, McLarnon will be at the forefront of the Foundation’s Big Heart Appeal street collection in Tauranga, serving as a volunteer area coordinator for the 13th year.
McLarnon said the people she worked with were what she enjoyed most about her role.
“I buy them a coffee sometimes just to show they are really special to me ... I couldn’t do it without them.
“For those contemplating volunteering, my advice is to remember that a lot of people know someone who has had heart problems, so they’re more willing to help out.”
The Heart Foundation was calling for volunteers to be street collectors on February 23 and 24 for the appeal.
Funds raised were invested into heart research and overseas training for New Zealand cardiologists who could bring the latest skills and treatments back to benefit Kiwis living with heart disease, it said in a statement.
“With heart disease claiming the life of one Kiwi every 90 minutes, volunteering for us is a vital way you can help in the fight against New Zealand’s single biggest killer – heart disease,” the foundation’s medical director Dr Gerry Devlin said.
“The outcomes for people with heart attacks and other heart conditions have improved dramatically due to the work funded by the Heart Foundation but there is still a way to go.
“We want to continue these incredible advances and enable our researchers, innovators, doctors and nurses to keep shifting the dial to improve heart health for New Zealanders and their families.”
